RWBY RE: Volume 1
by fall-R3aper
Summary: A rewrite of Volume 1 of RWBY, giving it a little more structure plot wise. Volume 1 of my rewrite adds more stuff than we got with the original Volume 1. It is also written with the knowledge we've had up to Volume 6, so some hindsight is taken into mind. Volumes 2-6 soon to follow. Music is directly referenced as well.
1. Red Trailer

Rose petals scattered about as a hooded young girl stood in front of a grave marker that was placed on a cliff. "What...Should I do?" she asked it, hoping for a response as she stood there.

_Red Like Roses,_

_Fills my dreams,_

_And Brings me to the place you rest._

The girl started to walk back towards the forest, seemingly unaware of the shifting shadows all around her in this forest.

_White is Cold and always yearning,_

_Burdened by a royal test_

A clearing was finally reached as the hooded girl stopped and looked all around her, a pack of hungry bipedal wolves that were pitch black with piercing red eyes surrounded her.

Black the beast descends from Shadows...

A wolf launched itself at the girl before she vanished in a blur of rose petals and appeared now hovering above it.

_Yellow Beauty Burns_

_Gold._

The tip of a sniper started to shine as the girl now floated above the wolf and fired a shot out of it, blasting it's head apart. She landed and started to open fire on all the attacking wolves, shooting each one that came her way. Each shot that hit blasted them apart before she rolled back and transformed her sniper out into a Scythe.

She swung her scythe overhead and sliced downward at a wolf, pulling a trigger and cutting further into it's body till it was completely bisected from the top down in a vertical slash. The momentum of her shot boosted the attack downward.

The wolves kept rushing at this girl as she now swung her scythe upward through another one and then spun it around downward, swinging it out a couple of times and cutting through more before a Wolf clawed at her from behind, knocking her back.

She proceeded to stab her scythe into the ground and start shooting more wolves that rushed at her. One wolf managed to close the distance and in response the girl jumped up and fired a shot at it, backing herself away, where she then kicked off of another wolf's head.

She sliced off the arm of a wolf that attempted to flank her and hooked her scythe around the body of another before pulling the trigger and with the kickback of a shot, bisected it before she again took a claw to the face, knocking her to her back.

Breathing heavily now, the girl let the empty clip of ammunition dropped from her scythe before loading in a strange new clip of ammo that seemed to suggest gravity.

Aiming her scythe behind her, the girl rushed forward, propelled by a shot as she started to slice through all the wolves that got in her way. Limbs were flying everywhere as she then fired one last shot at a wolf that lay on the ground, blasting it's head clean off. She landed right down in the center of the clearing in view of the sky and the shattered moon as bullet casings dropped all around her.

* * *

**Commentary:** Alright so here's the Red Trailer. I wish there was stuff to change about it, but honestly, I couldn't change much, I did give Ruby some dialogue here and made it seem more like something that actually happened. But that's about it. I was considering setting this At like the end of Volume 3. But I decided against it. Anyways, this is actually a chapter that isn't on where I've posted everything else. Yep, big surprise. I'm actually gonna work on the trailers here, as like exclusive content to this page. Whether or not this stays? Well that's something yet to be decided. Honestly, there isn't too much I'd change about the trailers apart from Weiss and Yang's trailers.


	2. White Trailer

**_Everyone is entitled to their own sorrow, for the heart has no metrics or forms of measure. And all of it... irreplaceable._**

In a dressing room sat a girl who was adjusting her hair. Her ponytail was centered.

"Are you really just going to stay here and be Father's pet?" a female voice asked. "Make your own decisions and grow up. I've made mine already... Starting today, you're now the heiress to our father's company. Goodbye, sister."

She undid her ponytail and started to adjust her hair.

"I don't give a damn what it is you want! I need you here! You're my heiress!" a man's voice demanded.

The girl kept fixing her hair, only just moving her ponytail it seemed.

"Alright, fine! If you're so dead set on going, then you'll be passing a test first and regardless of the results, I need you to hold one last concert, understood?" the voice stated in it's commanding tone.

A blue hue glanced up as the girl's long hair was moved off to the side before she stood up as a door opened.

"Ladies and Gentleman, please welcome... Weiss Schnee!" the girl stood center stage and looked out to the crowds of people all appearing to be wealthy and of a higher class.

The music started up as Weiss's eyes remained closed.

_Mirror, Tell me something_

_Tell me who's the loneliest of all?_

Weiss stood in a large dark room with a glass roof letting in beams of moonlight as a large suit of armor was kneeling in front of her. It soon stood up and with a sword in hand attempted to hit her, slamming the sword down into the ground.

_Mirror, Tell me something_

_Tell me who's the Loneliest of all?_

Backflipping away, Weiss dodged the attack and unclipped a rapier from her belt. Before dashing straight at the armor, that raised up it's sword, blocking her strike. It then attempted to slam it's sword into her again but she sped around it in a white blur.

Jumping into the air, Weiss stabbed at the armor several times, hitting it each time, but not doing much damage to it. It slashed out and she raised her rapier to block it, sliding back several feet.

_Fear of,_

_What's inside me_

_Tell me can a heart be turned to stone?_

The armor leaped at her and slammed it's sword into the ground, forcing Weiss to cartwheel to dodge it before it then slashed outward on the ground. Weiss jumped back to dodge this attack, but another slash out struck her and knocked her back.

She quickly forced herself up and moving her fingers made a glowing white glyph with a snowflake in it appear below her. She boosted herself forward off of it and dodged the next slash, by jumping over it and landing on one foot. Now skating around the armor, Weiss slashed at the armor while jumping up, landing on another glyph and boosting herself off of it. Weiss propelled herself downward and slashed at it's knee, aiming a few more well timed slashes at the armor's knee that caused it to stagger back.

Forming another glyph at her feet, Weiss boosted herself into the air, slashing upward at the Armor before landing on another glyph and aiming herself straight at it. She again slashed through it and landed on a glyph she made behind it.

The sword came her way and she jumped up, but before she had time to react, the armor threw a punch at her, knocking her back several feet and onto her face.

Back at the concert, Weiss now held a long note as she sung.

Weiss stood up, blood trickling down the side of her face now as she held a firm stance, with her rapier aimed forward at the large armor. A barrel that was at the base of the rapier started to spin as Weiss put her other hand on a trigger, which made the blade start to glow red.

The Armor charged forward and attempted to slash down on Weiss, but she brought her blade up to deflect the attack before quickly spinning around and stabbing her rapier to the ground and creating a row of icicles that shot out in the armor's direction.

_Mirror, Mirror what's behind you?_

_Save me from the things I see,_

Now trapped in place, the armor swung it's sword of incredible reach at Weiss who jumped up onto it now. Her weapon was now glowing white as sh swings it at the Armor's hand, knocking the sword from it, now landing several feet behind it. The armor managed to finally break free of the ice encasing it's feet.

_I can keep it from the world,_

_Why won't you let me hide from me?_

Weiss held her rapier up in front of her, the barrel spinning again and a large blue glyph forming below her feet. The armor rushed at her and threw a punch out, that she dodged with ease.

_Mirror, Mirror Tell me something_

Forming another glyph in her hand, Weiss launched the armor into the air as she then raised both of her arms up and shot out several more glyphs that restrained the armor's limbs and head, holding them in place.

_Who's the Loneliest of all?_

Finally, Weiss jumped into the air one last time, now visibly in front of the shattered moon in the sky and her weapon was starting to glow White.

_I'm the loneliest of all..._

Weiss stabbed through the armor, shattering it into an icy mist.

Meanwhile, at the concert hall Weiss finished her concert, the scar on her face was clearly visible for everyone to see as she bowed and exited the hall.

* * *

**Commentary:** Alright here's the White Trailer. Most of what I did here was just referencing the Manga more. The Shirow Miwa one specifically with Weiss being tested and Winter telling her to grow some backbone. Most of the changes are around the beginning. Next up is Blake's trailer, which might be different interaction wise as one goal I've had is keeping Adam's character consistent.


	3. Black Trailer

_**Your hopes have become my burden. I will find my own liberation...**_

In the clearing of a Forest with red trees sat a girl on a large boulder. This girl was clad in an outfit of black and white with a bow neatly tied on top of her head. She looked out towards the sky as footsteps approached her.

"Blake." a man's voice stated. "It's time to go."

"Alright." Blake stood herself up as the two started toward a cliff. Blake slipped a mask on over her face while watching a train start to close in on their position.

The man with her wore a suit, carried a sheathed Katana, wore a mask over his face as well and on his head were two horns.

Taking the man's lead, Blake jumped off the cliff after him and the two landed themselves right onto the train.

"You remember what we're here for, right?" the man asked.

"Of course." Blake affirmed. "i was at briefing yesterday."

"Just making sure." the man chuckled before in a fast motion he sliced the hatch on top of the train and the pair jumped in.

Landing inside they looked around them now as security lights were starting to blare, along with the screens lighting the train car's inside turning from blue to red, still with the displayed "SDC" logo.

Several security robots activated and aimed their weapons at the pair, some with chain guns for hands and others with blades for hands.

"Looks like we're doin' this one the hard way." the man chuckled.

"No need to be so dramatic, Adam." Blake rolled her eyes.

"INTRUDER IDENTIFY YOURSELF" the security bot demanded.

Adam merely aimed his weapon at the security bot and pulled a trigger, his katana firing out of it's sheath and hitting the security bot in the head. He then rushed up, caught his sword before it landed and sliced through it, sheathing his sword as he did so.

Two bladed security robots rushed at Blake.

_From Shadows,_

_We'll descend upon the world,_

_Take back what you stole_

Instead the two seemed to hit an afterimage of Blake as she held a large sword in her hand. Blake then charged forward as Adam cut through an approaching robot and started shooting at a few with his sheath while she sliced the legs of another off.

Adam slashed vertically in front of Blake, cutting through more robots while Blake ducked down under the slash. She then sliced the arm off of another robot that attempted to flank Adam while he cut through one on her flank.

_From Shadows,_

_We'll reclaim our destiny,_

_Set our future free_

One of the robots with chain gun hands started opening fire on the pair with Adam blocking most of the shots with his sword as Blake rushed forward, deflecting them before slicing the head off of that robot and the legs off the one behind it. As she slid forward she then pulled the outer layer of her blade out by the handle on it, unsheathing a smaller blade. As the outer layer slid out, it cut through another robot before she then slammed her leg down onto it.

Blake rushed forward again, cutting through more robots in her path and bounding off of one of her afterimages. Slashing at one several times, she kicked it into the air only for Adam to follow up and kick it out the door of the train.

_And we'll rise!_

The pair advanced outside now, where more robots were starting to converge on their position.

_And we'll rise!_

"Let's do this!" Adam insisted before charing forward and slashing at the first couple of robots to meet him, knocking them into the air, only for Blake to slash through them both.

_Above the Darkness and the Shame,_

_Above the Torture and the pain,_

Gritting her teeth in anger slightly, Blake transformed her smaller sword into a compact gun form that she then threw, attached to a ribbon. It bounded back as a gun shot fired out and cut through a robot several feet away from her. Adam ran forward and kicked a robot in front of her away.

_Above the ridicule and hate,_

_Above the binding of our fate!_

Blake jumped into the air and started whipping her weapon all around her getting all of the robots that came at her before finally hooking it around one last robot's shoulder and pulling it back to her with a shot, dismembering it.

Adam charged forward, slicing through several robots and sheathing his katana as they all exploded. Blake jumped ahead of him and sliced the head off of another robot in front of Adam. She switched targets and started slashing at the next one, knocking them up into the air.

Adam slashed downward with his katana and then fired a shot out while Blake, using her weapons Kusarigama form again, knocked two more robots into the air by spinning it around in front of her.

Knocking several more robots into the air, Blake then stood beside Adam who did several fast iaido slashes.

The last robot wasn't finished yet as Blake then kicked it forward, only for Adam with his sheath raised up behind him to shoot it before sheathing his sword.

Inside the next train car Blake and Adam began setting charges around it. "So we'll set this car and the front off before separating, the cargo will be ours while the rest of this train goes out in the explosion."

"Adam, you're forgetting something." Blake pointed out. "The crew members? We're here for supplies, not murder."

"What about the crew members?!" Adam scoffed. "Another casualty of war. They would kill us if they saw us."

Blake's eyes narrowed in anger at him. "They're just doing their jobs. They don't deserve to die because they were on a train we were planning on stealing."

"This isn't like you Blake." Adam stared down at her now and put a hand on her cheek. "Are you saying you'd rather abandon the mission to spare a few humans? We need those supplies!"

"And we can get them without killing anyone!" Blake defended herself, slapping his hand away.

Gritting his teeth in anger Adam turned away from her. "I don't know what's gotten into you Blake, but you'd better watch your mouth around me, I'm your superior and I'm telling you to-"

Before they could continue arguing a large spider robot dropped down between them.

_Born with no Life_

_Into Subjugation_

It opened fire on them as they moved to dodge the shots fired from it, a few crates exploded from the charges on them.

_Treated_

_Like a_

_worthless animal_

Blake ran at the giant robot and attempted to slash at it with her sword but was headbutted by it and sent flying back.

_Striped of_

_All rights_

_Just a lesser being_

The robot started marching forward when Adam lunged at it now and sliced at it several times with Iaido, only to get knocked back by one of it's legs.

_Crushed by_

_Cruel_

_Ruthless Human Rule_

It slammed it's leg down where Blake was, only to hit another after image left behind. She landed next to Adam and looked towards him. "We need to get out of here now!"

_When it started,_

_All we wanted was a chance to live our lives_

_Now in Darkness,_

_Taking everything we want and we will rise_

The robot charged up it's large canon after combining both of it's arms into it and fired out at the two, hitting them both and knocking them out through a further forward train car and outside again.

_We'll rise_

_We'll rise_

"Blake, you need to buy me some time." Adam insisted.

"You sure?!" Blake asked.

"JUST DO IT!" Adam yelled at her with a clear hint of anger in his tone.

Blake charged forward and dodged shots the Spider Robot was firing out at her while closing in towards it. She then hooked her weapon's Kusarigama form around it's head and pulled herself up into the air, the moon visibly behind her as she then brought herself down on the robot, spinning her weapon around and hitting it several times.

Landing behind it now, Blake took her weapon's bladed sheath in hand and charged under it, slashing at it's legs as it thrashed out, trying to hit her and shoot her when she was in range. Blake then jumped up to it's face and unloaded her weapon's entire clip of ammunition into it's face before jumping back.

"MOVE, NOW!" Adam yelled again as she ran further ahead of him.

He blocked the next fully charged laser the robot fired out at him and smirked while the Mech charged forward as all it's ammunition was depleted from that attack.

In a single swing of his blade, Adam unleashed the energy he absorbed and the robot dissolved into nothing.

Taking a deep breath Adam turned towards where Blake was and started walking over to her.

"Goodbye, Adam." Blake severed the train car she stood on from the one Adam was on, throwing her mask off and turning away from him.

"What are you doing?!" Adam called out to her as she just looked back at him, her weapon put away now while she sank into the distance from him as he held his hand out to her.

* * *

**Commentary:** Blake's trailer's done now and well... A lot more dialogue between Adam and Blake here(honestly with the quality back then it's probably good we didn't have this much dialogue between the two). I'm already painting Adam as this sort of controlling individual here just so you have a general idea of what you can expect with him. On another note, I'm still trying to decide whether or not I want to transfer my DA descriptions... I might, I also might not and provide new commentary as I reread everything I've written and also probably work on editing it a bit. Which my Volume 1 and half of my Volume 2 rewrite didn't have music before, so I might add it in where I can... On another note, the Yellow Trailer, might suffer the same way the Red and White Trailers have in that not much will change because honestly, there isn't much to change. I can try and reference something about the Malachite family and who their mother is, but that's about as much as I can do new with that.


	4. Yellow Trailer

_**Scathing eyes ask that we be symmetrical, one sided and easily processed. Yet every misshapen spark's unseen beauty is greater than its would be judgement.**_

A motorcycle came to a screeching halt as it stopped near the entrance to a shady club. A blonde haired woman sat up on her motorcycle and opened up her phone-like device, seeing a text message from someone with a Rose symbol asking "Yang, where are you?"

The blonde sighed and closed her scroll before walking into the club.

Her silhouette was visible as she approached the door before it automatically opened, letting her into the club that looked nothing like the exterior of the building it was in.

It looked high tech with people dancing on the floor and some suspiciously dressed men lounging about. Two women wearing rather ornate dresses that were red and White walked past Yang, scoffing at the sight of her when she took a seat in front of the bar.

"Strawberry Sunrise, please. No ice, oh and one of those little umbrellas too!" she asked the bartender who nodded and turned around to prepare the drink.

"Aren't you a little young to be at this club?" the man sitting next to her asked.

"And aren't you a little old to have a name like 'Junior'?" Yang snidely remarked.

"So you know who I am then, Blondie?" he asked.

"Yes I do, and I have many names." Yang chuckled. "Now then, tell me where I can find this woman." she held up a picture of a woman that looked similar to her, but with black hair and clad in red and black.

"Never seen her before in my life." The man stated with a shrug as Yang's drink was placed in front of her. The two women from before looked at the picture and glanced to each other, almost as if they knew who she was looking for.

"No more questions." The one in Red stated.

"Take your drink and go." The woman in White insisted a little more forcefully than her sister.

"Now, now... No need to be so rude with our guest here ladies." Junior held his hand up and the twins backed off, walking back away with annoyed shrugs. "Why don't you just take your mind off that topic and relax, Sweetheart?" he insisted as Yang was about to take a sip of her drink, but put her drink back down and leaned in closer to Junior.

"I have a better idea. Instead of sweatheart... Why don't you call me SIR!" Yang reached down and grabbed him between the legs, making him whimper out in fear. "If you didn't hear me before, then you'll tell me where I can find this woman." she insisted.

"I-If you wanna get out of this club alive, I'd recommend you let me go!" Junior whimpered more as his men started to gather around the pair.

"Tell me what I wanna know!" Yang persisted.

"I swear I don't know where to find her!" Junior pleaded before he felt Yang's grip tightening.

"Excuse me?!"

"I SWEAR I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO FIND HER, SIR!" he yelled as Yang finally let go. "Y-You're gonna regret that one."

"Oh come now, you don't need to be so sensitive about it." Yang chuckled. "It seems we've gotten a bit of an audience." Yang saw that she was surrounded by Junior's thugs, all of whom were brandishing swords and fire axes. "Now then, call those twins back over here so I can ask them, since they seem to know."

Junior just chuckled a bit. "I've got a better idea Blondie, my men beat you up and take those pretty bracelets of yours! What do ya guys sa-" before he could finish taunting her, Yang punched him in the face, launching him across the room and slamming him through one of the club's glass pillars before her bracelets then started to transform into gauntlets.

The first couple of thugs ran at her and she leaped into the air, aiming her fist straight at the ground before slamming into the ground and creating a shockwave that knocked away all of the thugs around her.

The thugs started to get up as Yang Jumped into the air and slammed her leg down on a thug who raised his axe up to try and defend but it was useless as Yang's attack broke through his defense and slammed him against the floor shattering the glass tiles that it was made of.

Yang propelled herself forward and punched a goon in the gut, then followed with an uppercut that was amplified with a shotgun burst from her gauntlet. She turned around and kicked one of the thugs behind her, knocking the red glasses off of his face.

She fired a shot from gauntlets at Another thug in front of her that swung his sword at him before she then used that momentum to kick off of two more thugs behind her. She followed up on the thug she shot with a sweep kick that knocked him off balance and lead her into her next attacks, an upward punch to his stomach and a downward punch, slamming him to the ground. She vaulted off the chest of one thug, landing on another two that staggered back.

Recovering from Yang's sudden landing, the next thug slashed at her with his sword, but was blocked by Yang's gauntlet and promptly punished with a punch to the chest and an uppercut to the chin, knocking him on his back.

Aiming her gauntlets in one direction, Yang propelled herself forward with a shot, slamming into a thug and following up with a roundhouse kick. The next thug again struck her gauntlet with their sword and she elbowed them and then fired a shot off under their chin following up with another shotgun blast boosted kick that knocked them through a glass pillar.

The next goon swung at her twice and was blocked both times, again, Yang punished and punched at them several times. "**ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAAA!**" she yelled as she landed every single one of those punches on him and flung him away.

The DJ, DJ D3AD B3AR started opening fire on Yang with a Tommy Gun. Yang ran at him, weaving from side to side before firing a shot off under her and boosting herself up into the air, bringing her fist down on him and slamming his head onto his turntable, then picking him up and throwing him out of the Booth.

He landed right at feet of the mysterious twins, the two looking seemingly annoyed.

"Who does this blonde bimbo think she is, Melanie?!" the girl in red asked.

"I don't know Militia, but she needs to be taught her place!" Melanie glared.

Yang emptied out her Gauntlets, the bullet casings falling to the ground below her before she then reached into her pouch and tossed out two more rolls of ammunition, catching them in her gauntlets. "I take it, you won't be telling me what I want then. Fine by me!" Yang leaped out of the booth and fired out shots from her gauntlets that flew at the twins.

The shots were easily dodged with back flips as Yang reached the ground. The twins nodded to each other with Melanie running to Yang's right and Militia running to her left.

Yang focused her attention on Melanie with more shots, but Melanie deflected one with her heels. Yang then saw Militia and shot at her, missing when she dodged as well. Melanie, finally closed her distance with Yang and kicked her, hitting Yang's gauntlets as she blocked in time.

Sliding back from that last hit, Yang fired a shot out that Melanie again deflected with her heel into a pillar behind her while Militia rushed at Yang.

Militia's claws clashed with Yang's gauntlets before Melanie interjected and kicked at Yang again in midair with a couple of kicks that were blocked.

Yang attempted to get a shot off on Militia who was jumping at her, but found herself tripped by Militia as she landed from her last attack, missing her shot taking a hit from Militia's claw.

The Malachite twins followed up with a series of kicks that hit Yang and knocked her away.

Yang quickly recovered, boosting herself forward with a shot and punching Melanie in the face with a shot from her gauntlets and sending her flying away.

Militia raised her claws up to block Yang's next series of punches after getting hit with the first one. She also took a hit to her back from a kick Yang threw out before another kick tripped her up and Yang got a good set of punches in on her gut, boosting her into the air.

The next punch that hit Militia launched her through a pillar, screaming just as Melanie stood herself up again.

More shots were fired Melanie's way by Yang, she deflected and blocked them with flips and a jump kick as she was again close range with Yang.

The pair threw kicks out at each other that missed before Yang fired another shot out of her right gauntlet that missed and Melanie started kicking at her with one leg, each kick met with Yang's gauntlets.

Melanie didn't stop as she blocked another shot from Yang's attack and kicked forward with her other leg, pushing Yang away from her.

Skating forward slightly now, Melanie started raising a leg up about to kick but stopping and trying to fake Yang up as she backed away from her fake outs and blocked the couple of real kicks that were thrown her way.

Keeping up her assault on Yang, Melanie kept kicking at her, only for Yang to catch her in the gut with an elbow as she spun herself to wind up for a kick.

Grabbing Melanie's wrist, Yang pulled her forward and spun her around before hitting her with a kick to the face, knocking her out cold and shattering her aura. Yang's hair was notably starting to look as if it was on fire now.

The lights at the club suddenly started shutting off as Yang looked around, seeing Melanie picking herself up and walking away.

Junior approached now, with a rocket launcher in hand. "You're gonna pay for this." he stated coldly as Yang readied her stance.

_Come at me,_

_And you'll see,_

_I'm more than meets the eye_

A set of homing rockets fired out in Yang's direction that she jumped and rolled to avoid. More rockets came as Junior didn't let up on them. Yang now fired shots out from her gauntlets at Junior's rockets, exploding them in midair.

_You think that,_

_You'll break me?_

_You're gonna find in time,_

Junior charged forward now with his Rocket launcher transformed into a bat now. He swung harshly at Yang, breaking through her guard and hitting her over the head a couple of times before swinging upwards and slamming her through a glass table as he held his bat over his shoulder with a smirk.

_You are standing too close to the flame that's burning,_

_Hotter than the Sun in the middle of July_

Yang stood up, her hair glowing even more now as she smirked to Junior. She slammed her fists together charged forward, now dodging and weaving Junior's rockets before nearing him and winding up her first punch.

In desperation Junior swung at her with his bat, but it harmlessly bounced off her gauntlet as she punched him.

_Sending out your army,_

_But you still can't win,_

_Listen up silly boy,_

_Cuz I'm gonna tell you why!_

Yang followed the momentum of her first punch up with another several punches, in a Dempsey roll. "**ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA**!" She yelled out again, eyes turning red as she hit him with her last punch that shattered his bat to pieces and sent him rolling on the ground away from her.

**_I BURN_**

_Can't hold me now,_

_And you've got nothing that can stop me now,_

Junior stood back up and looked to a clump of Yang's hair he now had in his hand and chuckled a little nervously as Yang literally exploded in the middle of his club in a blind rage.

**_I BURN_**

_Swing all you want,_

_Like a fever I'll take you down!_

The entire room went a bright White as Yang charged at Junior full force and punched him in the face, knocking him right outside the window, his aura breaking now as he groaned out in pain.

Yang landed right outside the club, her eyes still red before the red hooded girl approached with headphones on and staggered back. "Yang?!" Ruby was surprised to see her. "I've been looking all over for you!"

"Sorry, sis. It's a long story." Yang scratched the back of her head as her eyes turned back to their normal lilac as she then looked back to the club. "Oh, I forgot my drink..."

* * *

**Commentary:** Now we're finally finished with the trailers! This one was way longer than the last and I did have a load of fun recounting the fighting in the Yellow Trailer. I did make the conversation with Yang and Junior different with Yang not immediately resorting to violence before asking her first question. The Malachite Twins knowing more than Junior is something I have kind of considered ever since I found out they were related to Lil' Miss Malachite. The fight was mostly the same and before you ask, yes I added in Yang making the "**ORA**" punching yells because of the Japanese dub and because I'm also a sucker for JJBA. But yeah, now that the trailers are done, it will be mostly smooth sailing in terms of chapter releases considering how Volumes 1-5 have already been written out by me on another site and I'm mostly just gonna transfer them here.

Just so you know, there is going to be some new characters thrown into the mix to spice it up a little. Characters like, Team FCSA(Fuscia) who are pretty much Tertiary characters with the exception of Alix(Gee i wonder who he's based off of :V) who's going to play into Yang's Volume 4 arc a little more(Don't worry, Nothing Shippy will be done with Alix), filling in the slot of one of her "Shadow friends" from Volume 1. Which Team FCSA as a whole aren't really going to affect the plot too much as their role is more or less is to be background characters. Which, if they are liked more, I may write a separate story centered around them, but otherwise, they're just there to fill in some blank spaces where blank spaces could have been filled in.

Also, as stated elsewhere... Certain outcomes and character fates are set in stone, so Beacon WILL still fall in Volume 3 and certain characters will still meet their end. Other characters who just vanish without a trace, may have some liberties taken with them just as a fair warning(Well I only really do this to 1 character).

Oh and FYI: Yang is my favorite member of team RWBY.


	5. Chapter 1: Ruby Rose

The shattered moon glistened down onto a puddle that was soon stepped on by a group of men that all snuck around through an alleyway. Their destination a dust shop by the name of "From Dust Till Dawn." One man, wearing a stylish bowler hat decided to approach via the front door, cane in hand, twirling it around as he came to a stop in front of the cash register.

"This can go one of two ways." he started in a suave tone as the old man looked up at him and two other men whom had entered through the back door were now approaching him from behind, pointing their weapons at him.

He raised his arms up in surrender, but not before opening the cash register in fear.

"We're not here for your money." the suave man assured before looking to his goons, his goons all wore black suits with bright red ties and shades. "Grab the dust."

As the men started taking the dust, draining entire containers of the energy propellant, one of them spotted a girl in one of the aisles. She wore a red hood and had headphones over her ears, meaning she wasn't at all aware of what was going on around her. She was glancing down at a magazine but then back to the shelf. "Ugh, where is it?!"

The man approached her and aimed a weapon at her. "Freeze!" he yelled out, but she wasn't responding.

"Hey kid, I said freeze!" he grabbed her shoulder, which made her turn around.

"Um yes?" she looked at him as he pointed to her ears and she lowered her headphones.

"This is a stick up kid!" he stated.

"Oh so you're robbing me then." this girl's silver hues glistened as a smirk formed on her face.

"Yes-" before the man could continue more, suddenly right from her back came a folded up weapon that smacked him across the face, sending him flying backwards as another man tried flanking her side, she pressed a button on the weapon and the stock of a sniper rifle extended outward and smacked the other man as a man that stood in front of the shop's front window aimed his gun at her. Before he could shoot, the sniper fired and blasted the man through the window.

The girl started to transform her weapon as she ran at the leader of the men with her weapon transforming more before taking a swipe with a scythe now.

The man however ducked under her attack, though in a rather cartoonish manner, the feather on his hat was cut by the top while the girl leaped over the broken window after overshooting her attack and stopped herself, now posing in front of the shop with her scythe out and turning the music on her headphones off.

The leader of the robbers grunted before pointing to her. "Get her!"

The scythe wielding girl dodged to the side of a bullet fired from a man and hit him with the back end of her scythe before raising it to block a swipe from an axe one of the men were carrying. She then swiftly slid her weapon out from the gridlock they were in with their clashing weapons and smacked him with the lower pointy end of her scythe before firing off a shot at another man and then spinning around and with the propulsion of a gun shot, smacking the last man with the back end of her scythe, sending him flying into the air, spinning a couple of times before he landed right at his leader's feet.

"You were worth every cent, truly you were." he muttered under his breath as the girl stood in front of him, ready for a fight.

"The game's were fun red, but unfortunately, I have to go." he aimed his cane at her, and the bottom portion of it unfolded slightly revealing it to be a scope as he took a shot at the girl, firing out a bright red projectile that she dodged to the side of.

Disoriented, she looked to the shopkeep whom had just called the authorities. "You fine if I go after him?" she asked, spotting the thief climbing up a nearby fire escape.

The man nodded before she ran forward and aimed her weapon at the ground, firing a single shot and using it to propel her upwards to the roof.

The thief glared at her in annoyance. "You're just determined to be a nuisance to me, aren't ya, red?!" he scoffed and fired another shot off at her that she shot out of the air, creating a smoke.

However before she could advance, the man advanced instead, smacking her with the side of his cane, knocking her off balance. But she quickly regained herself and swung at him. He dodged with a slight leap back and countered with a jab to her gut with the cane's handle.

He then followed up with a few more swings, one of which impacted with the side of her face, another hit her shoulder and the other was blocked before she shoved forward, making him stagger back a little while she then swung upwards with her scythe, knocking his cane up into the air while she smirked triumphantly.

She then fired a shot from her weapon when swinging at him again, giving him barely enough time to dodge it as he threw himself onto the ground, his weapon clattering right next to him.

"Just give up!" she stated as he glared at her, picking his weapon up and fired a shot off at her, this time, he hit the shot with his weapon, , redirecting it to the ground right in front of her, which made her stagger back.

before he her with an upward swing, and then a downward one, knocking her onto the ground and disarming her.

"Gotta say, Red you almost had me for a moment there." he spun his cane around. "But end of the road!" he tossed a red dust crystal at Ruby's feet and aimed his cane at her, firing a shot.

He laughed as he saw the girl explode while then getting into a bullhead that pulled up, notably in the pilot seat of it was a small girl with pink, white and brown hair. He boarded the bullhead, but right as he turned around to see the wreckage, a strange purple glyph glowed through the smoke till it cleared and revealed the girl was fine and in front of him was a blonde haired woman, wearing a white blouse and black skirt, a black cape with a purple interior and holding a riding crop in her hand.

"Whoa... You're... A huntress!" the red clad girl exclaimed as the woman adjusted her glasses and her green hues glared at the bullhead. She summoned forth a cloud out of her riding crop and rained down ice crystals from the sky at the bullhead.

"We got a huntress!" the thief called out as the pilot switched out with him and held her hand up to the floor of the bullhead.

The huntress glared and sent down a bolt of lightning at the bullhead, but it shattered like glass and was flying out of range now.

She lightly swore under her breath before turning towards the girl that had given chase. "C-Can I have your autograph!?" she asked.

* * *

The interrogation room was dimly lit and the girl sat alone at the table, looking down sadly.

"It was incredibly dangerous for you to rush in there."

"They started it!" the girl argued.

"You could have gotten hurt!" the huntress chastised her more before stopping. "If it were up to me, you'd go home with a pat on the back..."

The girl in red smiled.

"And a Slap on the wrist!" the huntress smacked her hand with the riding crop. "But someone here would like to speak with you." she stepped back as a white haired man wearing a suit approached her with a plate of cookies.

"Ruby Rose." he paused, looking her in the eyes for a moment. "You have... Silver eyes." he noted as he placed the plate of cookies down in front of her.

"Um..." she then turned her attention to the cookies and practically inhaled the whole plate.

"Now where did you learnt o do this?" he played back the replay of the fight on what seemed like a tablet. "I haven't seen many scythe wielders. The only two I'm really aware of are a Dusty old Crow... and the Grimm reaper." he stopped at that last mention as Ruby swallowed her cookies, not after trying to speak first.

"Oh yeah- That's my Uncle Qrow! He's a teacher at Signal. Taught me everything I know. I used to be complete garbage before he took me under his wing, now I'm all cool like Hiya! Ki-chaw!" she posed around like she was a kung fu fighter a bit before stopping herself. "I'm almost done training at Signal, when I graduate I'm gonna apply to be a huntress there. My sister Yang is starting this year and she wants to be a huntress too."

"You want to fight monsters?"

"i want to help people and I mean Yang and I were taught to help people, and like sure I could become a regular police officer or something, but Huntresses are like so cool and awesome and romantic and-and YA know?!" she smiled up to him.

"Do you know who I am?" the man asked.

"You're Professor Ozpin, the headmaster at Beacon."

"Do you want to go to my School?" he asked.

"More than anything." Ruby nodded.

"Well okay." Ozpin sipped his coffee.

Ruby's eyes went wide and she smiled eagerly before that expression would drop when Yang would hug her the next day.

"Oh I'm so proud of my baby sister making it to Beacon early!" Yang smiled to her as they were standing at the airship docks.

"Sis... Stop..." Ruby whined as Yang let go of her, finally giving her time to breathe.

"Ruby, smile for the Camera!" a blonde haired man stated, holding up his scroll as Yang chuckled and tried to smile in a cool way for the camera.

"Dad please, this is embarrassing..." Ruby lamented as she was being coddled by her sister and father.

"Oh come on, Ruby everyone's gonna think you're the bee's knees!" Yang smiled to her sister.

"C-Could you please stop! I don't wanna be looked at like I'm special! I'm just a normal girl, with normal knees!"

"But kiddo, you are special." the man put his hand on her shoulder.

"I got ahead two years early, I don't want to be treated any differently than anyone else-"

"Now boarding airships to Beacon." a voice over the intercom stated.

"Oh we gotta go!" Ruby noted, almost wanting to rush to leave this embarrassing situation behind.

"Hey girls wait!" their father stopped them both, making them think they forgot something. But he then hugged them.

"You'll both do great out there." he smiled to them before they left. A black bird perched on a lamp post watched as the ship flew out as well before flying off.

On a nearby screen a news report was playing. "Notorious criminal Roman Torchwick evades authorities yet again, even after huntress Glynda Goodwitch stepped into the scene to stop him, him and his currently unknown accomplice have evaded authorities several times following a string of robberies. If you know any information that could help lead to an arrest, please contact the number below. Now Lisa back to you." Cyril Ian finished.

"Thank you, Cyril. Chaos during protest. Today's Peaceful Faunus protest was disrupted by the White Fang, the once peaceful organization has committed countless acts of terror, when asked for a comment, none was given-" the TV shut off.

* * *

**Commentary**: This chapter was the first one I wrote. So you may see a difference in quality compared to the trailers/more recent stuff I've written. I do apologize for that if it is a little jarring, I was just figuring things out back then as I started writing this out, uncertain if I wanted to go forward on it. This was around the time before I started drafting the Volumes out, which Volumes 4-6 were all drafted, while Volumes 1-3 I simply just knew what I wanted to do for them. Which I will add here that some ideas I use here are ideas inspired by other people, whether it be suggestions from a friend, input from a critic on the other page I put this story on or some Youtubers I watch(Namely Celtic Phoenix and Unicorn of War to give specific examples). But even then, I do my best to try and make those ideas different, or put a twist on them in some way.

Without posting the exact other description I have, I will go over some of the changes I gave this chapter

No opening monologue- I didn't feel the need for it, and well in hindsight it did spoil/tease(?) a future character that we wouldn't see for 3 whole Volumes.

Ruby vs Roman- It just shows the scaling a bit better, Ruby's very much a newbie, so of course she can't handle a criminal like Roman Torchwick.

Where's Cinder?- Simply put, not here. I decided to save her first appearance for something unexpected...

Airship docks- Well, this is a new scene and Taiyang is here now to further embarrass Ruby like any good father should.

Anyways, let me know what kind of format you'd like for these commentary sections, I'm open to suggestions because having to do all these over again seems like a bit of a drag.

Also my planned release schedule is 1-2 chapters a day, every day. So do keep your eyes peeled on that. Volume 1 has a total of 12 Chapters. So we'll be through this one within a week. Which if I do miss a day or anything, it's likely because I'm focusing on Volume 6...


	6. Chapter 2: The Shining Beacon

The airships finally let off at Beacon docks where a blonde student stumbled out of it and threw up.

"Eugh... I guess the flight's not for everyone." Yang commented as her sister was fawning over the various weapons she saw each student holding.

"Oooh... WHOA! YANG LOOK! That guy has a flame sword! Oh and that guy has a rifle-bat! Oh and she has a mace with a flamethrower!" Ruby was pulled back by Yang whom pulled her hood over her head.

"C'mon sis, there's more to people than their weapons."

"Oh I know, but like weapons are a part of us, they really tell a lot about the people who make them. Like from your weapon I'd be able to tell you're very direct and straightforward with your approach to new people!" Ruby confidently pat her chest as Yang looked to the gauntlets on her wrists.

"True, that may be so." Yang shook her head. "But you've still gotta grow and meet new people."

"Ugh, you sound just like Dad!" Ruby rolled her eyes. "Besides, why would I do that when I can hang out with my big sister?"

"Oh, funny thing about that rubes-" Yang was cut off by another voice.

"Hey Yang!" a blonde haired male, looking about her age approached, he had a green jacket, black pants and sneakers. His eyes were an emerald green color. "You ready to hit up the cafeteria with me and the others?"

"Oh, yeah of course, Alix!" Yang smiled and before Ruby could protest this, Yang and Alix had gone off in a blur.

"Ugh..." Ruby groaned and started walking towards the statue in the center of the court yard when she stumbled over a luggage.

"Ow..." Ruby stood herself up when a white haired girl with light blue eyes glared daggers at her.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" she was clearly angry.

"Um, I'm sorry I didn't see your bag on the ground!" Ruby apologized profusely, bowing her head.

"Unbelievable. How can someone be so blind to their surroundings?!" the girl in white insulted.

For some reason Ruby could swear she recognized this girl. Like she's seen her somewhere before.

"Hey, I said I'm sorry, Princess." Ruby snarked back at her, which just made her groan.

"Ugh, you're right. It's probably my servant's fault." the girl in white turned towards one of her servants, whom had boar tusks, clearly a faunus. "I told you to leave my luggage off to the side!" she insulted.

"Say, Um... I feel like I know you from somewhere." Ruby tapped two of her fingers together as she nervously looked up at the girl.

"You still have NO clue what you're messing with!" the white haired girl again turned to Ruby. "What I have in my luggage is dust!" she took out a vial. Mined and purified in the Schnee Quarry!" she shook it, unaware that the lid was slightly loose, which released a dust cloud in front of Ruby.

"W-Whatever you do! Don't move suddenly!" she tried to warn Ruby, but it was too late as Ruby sneezed. Ruby's sneeze set off fire dust, which in turn ignited and set off the other vials of dust that the girl had in the briefcase she opened.

"YOU COULD HAVE KILLED US YOU DUNCE!" The girl drew out her rapier in her anger which surprised Ruby into transforming her scythe out, defensively.

"I was gonna ask you if you're famous or something!" Ruby whined before everything stopped when another voice interjected.

"She's Weiss Schnee. The Heiress to the Schnee Dust company." the new voice belonged to a girl clad in black, with black hair and yellow eyes. She notably wore a huge bow on her head and glared at Weiss before handing the now empty bottle of burn dust to her, that she snatched out of her hand. "The same company, known for it's questionable business practices and mistreatment of it's workers." she looked sympathetically towards the two servants Weiss had with her, the other one notably had a small little deer tail.

"W-Well I'd never!" Weiss groaned angrily. "Come we're unloading this at the belonging drop off area!" she sheathed her rapier, then stormed off.

Ruby turned towards the girl that had helped her. "Hey thanks for the help!" Ruby called out to her as she only offered a slight smile before turning away and walking off.

"What an odd girl." Ruby sighed before she sat down in the courtyard on a bench and leaned back.

"Make a friend she said. They're better than weapons." Ruby said, trying to mock Yang's tone while she slowly slid off the bench and onto the ground before a hand extended towards her.

"Need a hand?" a male voice asked.

"Aren't you that guy that threw up?" Ruby remarked before taking the hand.

* * *

Ruby now walked alongside a blonde haired boy wearing a chest plate over what seemed to just be a regular hoodie and jeans. "All i'm saying is that these things aren't that rare." he argued.

"Sorry, Vomit boy just seemed natural." Ruby laughed.

"Well how would you like it if I called you crater face?!" he countered which just made Ruby laugh.

"What's your name anyways?"

"Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls off the tongue and ladies love it!" Jaune confidently proclaimed.

"Do they really though?" Ruby deadpanned.

"They will! I hope so..." Jaune grunted before noticing Ruby's weapon in it's folded up state.

"So that's your weapon?" he asked her.

Ruby grinned eagerly and transformed it into it's scythe form, which made him jump back. "Yep! I call her Crescent Rose!" she hugged it.

"Whoa... I've never seen a scythe before!" he complimented.

"It's also a high impact sniper rifle!"

"Uh... What?" he asked.

"It's also a gun." she cocked it before transforming it back into it's compact form. "What's your weapon? I can see it's some kinda sword. But maybe there's more to it?!"

"Oh um..." he unsheathed his sword. "It's this sword." he began.

"Oooh..." Ruby marveled.

"And it's sheath turns into a shield." he stated. "That's really all it can do. I know it's lame in comparison to your Crescent Rose." he sighed.

"Well I think it's fine!" Ruby grinned. "No one has much appreciation for the classics these days! Did you make it yourself?!"

"Er... This was my grandfather's when he fought in the war."

"Sounds more like a family Heirloom to me." Ruby snickered before the intercoms at the school spoke out suddenly.

"Would all new students please report to the central auditorium!" the voice of Glynda Goodwitch called out.

"Oh, guess we gotta go." Ruby and Jaune started towards the auditorium.

* * *

Meanwhile back with Yang, she was taking pictures with Alix and a couple of her other friends in front of the CCT when the announcement interrupted. "Oh right, must be orientation." she scratched the back of her head.

"Right, we should get going then." Alix affirmed.

"Yeah." Yang started off with him. "I'd hate to be Dis-oriented." Yang snarked.

"Yeah, it'd be a real bummer if we couldn't orient ourselves properly." Alix added as the two just snickered immaturely at their own bad puns.

"But in all seriousness though, I hope you've been training buddy. You're gonna need it for initiation. I hear it's gonna be a sorta field training." Yang warned.

"Well, it's a good thing I've practiced and have improved my weapon's stability." he took a dagger out and spun it around in his hand. "By the way, are you gonna check in on your sister?"

"Oh? Yeah of course! I'm sure she hasn't gotten herself into too much trouble. She claims to not be good in environments like this, but honestly when she puts her foot forward she can make some good friends." Yang chuckled before the two entered the auditorium.

Yang split off from Alix and quickly found Ruby. "Hey!" Yang ran up to her sister.

"Oh Yang!" Ruby waved as she then turned to Jaune. "Sis, this is Jaune." she pointed to him.

"Aren't you that guy that threw up?" Yang asked.

"Why does everyone only talk about that?!" Jaune complained.

"Thanks for being a friend to Ruby." Yang smiled. Jaune simply nodded before Ruby was suddenly dragged ahead with her sister so they could get a little closer to the stage.

"Hey wait!" Jaune groaned. "Where am I gonna meet another quirky girl?" he hung his head as he walked by, a red haired girl wearing some armor looked to him.

"Ugh, Yang what I'm trying to say is that I exploded!" Ruby stated.

"Whoa, got mad already?!" Yang chuckled.

"No, I mean I literally blew up in an explosion!"

"Are you joking with me sis?" Yang wasn't taking this too seriously till Weiss stepped forward.

"YOU!" this made Ruby jump into her sister's arms.

"You nearly killed us both!" she scolded.

"Oh my God, you really did explode." Yang dropped her sister.

"I-I apologized! What's your problem with me?!" Ruby argued.

"The Schnee Dust company is not responsible for any injuries sustained while operating a Schnee Dust company product. Although, not mandatory the Schnee Dust Company recommends all users familiarize themselves with this guide as to how to correctly handle dust." Weiss held a pamphlet in front of Ruby's face and also seemed as if she was talking at a million miles per hour.

"Um... What?" Ruby could barely follow.

"If you want to start making things up to me, read this and pretend like we never met." she tossed the pamphlet at Ruby and stormed off to the other side of the auditorium.

Ruby whimpered sadly as Yang put a hand on her shoulder just as Ozpin stepped onto the stage with Glynda Goodwitch besides him.

He cleared his throat, which made every student turn their attention to him.

"Let me keep this short." he started.

"You all came to this academy in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills and when you finish you wish to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But when I look across this room, I see nothing but wasted energy." he looked towards Ruby specifically. "In need of direction," his eyes glanced up at Weiss. "Purpose." now he looked back to Yang. "You all assume knowledge will take you that far, but in reality you have to be the one to make the first step." he then stepped away from the stage as Glynda stepped up.

"You all will rest in the ballroom tonight, tomorrow your initiation will begin." she instructed as the Amphitheater began to clear out. Ruby stopped and looked at Ozpin, whom stood by one of the exits, sipping from his mug before she left with the others.

* * *

In the ballroom Ruby laid on a sleeping bag, writing in her journal.

Yang laughed and jumped onto the sleeping bag next to her sister. "It's like a big slumber party!"

"I don't think Dad would approve of the boys though." Ruby remarked.

several guys were without shirts and flexing their muscles to which Yang responded to with a playful purr. Jaune in his onsie stepped out making Yang look away in disgust.

"What're ya writing sis?" Yang asked.

"Just a letter to all my old friends at Signal." she sighed.

"Dawww... That's just so cuuute!" Yang was about to hug a sister but was stopped when Ruby threw a corgi pillow in her face.

"I didn't get to take my friends with me like you did, sis!" Ruby pouted. "It's weird not knowing anyone here!"

"Well aren't some of my friends like your friends? What about Jaune?" Yang asked. "He would be an increase to your friend count!"

"For starters, your friends treat me like a child still. So I'd hardly call them normal friends." Ruby scoffed.

"Ouch." Yang frowned.

"And Jaune... Well Weiss doesn't like me, so I'm pretty certain she's a negative friend. Back to 0." Ruby laid on her back, looking up at the roof.

"You can't have Negative friends, Ruby." Yang chuckled. "You made a friend and an enemy!" She was hit with the pillow again. "Look, sis. It's just been a day I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends. They're all around you. You just haven't met them yet!"

Nearby the black haired girl from earlier approached, wearing her pajamas which appeared to be a short kimono. She had a book in hand and a candle in her other. She sat down and started reading a book.

"That girl." Ruby noted.

"Do you know her? She's kinda cute." Yang remarked with a snicker.

"Yang control yourself!" Ruby smacked her head.

"Ow, sorry, sorry!" Yang whined. "Seriously though, do you know her?"

"I met her this morning around the time I met Weiss. She wasn't mean to me and in fact kinda defended me a little." Ruby explained.

"Well then let's give her a chat!"

Yang approached, dragging Ruby along with her, Ruby not wanting to bother her.

"Hello!~" Yang called out to the girl in black.

"Yes? Can I help you?" she asked looking up at her.

"Heh. Hi um..." Ruby seemed nervous and was now glancing back at Yang. "Yang help me!" Ruby mouthed to her sister.

Yang grunted. "Um Hi! What's your name?!" Yang asked.

"Blake." she deadpanned and flipped a page of her book.

"Um, I just wanted to thank you for sticking up for my sister, Ruby!" she shoved Ruby in front of her.

"It's nothing really." Blake looked back to her book and a dead silence lingered in the air.

"Yeah, she's a total lost cause." Yang whispered to her sister before looking at her. "I like your bow, it goes great with your... Pajamas!"

"Thank you." she sounded irritated now.

"Today wasn't a bad first day, right?" Yang asked.

"Yes, today was almost as good as this book. Which I'm enjoying that I'd like to continue reading." she focused on her book again.

"What's it about?" Ruby asked.

"Oh?" Blake seemed a little interested in Ruby as her bow would notably twitch slightly, something Yang saw but decided to keep to herself.

"Your book?" Ruby pressed.

"Oh, it's about a man with two souls, fighting for control over his body." Blake explained.

"Gee if that doesn't remind me of anything." Yang rolled her eyes, a slight glance in Alix's direction as he was chuckling at a video on his scroll. She just mouthed the word 'Scatterbrained' in his general direction.

"That sounds cool. I like to read a lot too. A lot of fairy tales and stories." Ruby smiled.

"Why? Are you hoping to live happily ever after?" Blake asked.

"Well I'm hoping we all will at some point. As a girl I've always wanted to be like those heroes in the books and fight for what's right. And also fight to help those who can't help themselves." Ruby explained.

"That's ambitious for a kid." Blake frowned. "But life isn't like a fairy tale."

"Well that's why we're here, isn't it? To make the world a better place."

"Oh I'm so happy you made a friend!" Yang hugged Ruby, picking her up, which resulted in Ruby punching Yang to make her let go. The two got into a bit of a scuffle now, with Ruby grabbing a large pillow from someone else's sleeping bag and smacking Yang over the face with it.

Yang on the other hand kept trying to hug Ruby, but Ruby kept resisting. Blake could only stifle a slight laugh at this interaction between the two sisters.

"Ruby, Yang it's nice to have met you two." Blake smiled.

Yang smirked. "The pleasure is all-" Yang was cut short when Weiss, wearing a nightgown stormed over, her face looking redder by the moment like she was about to explode in anger.

"Are you two hooligans the ones making all this noise?!"

"NOT YOU AGAIN!" Yang and Weiss glared at each other.

"Shh, guys we should try and keep it down!" Ruby insisted.

"On my side now, are we?" Weiss crossed her arms.

"I was always on your side, Ice Queen." Ruby glared.

"Yeah, what's your problem with My sister?! she just wants to make a friend!" Yang argued.

"She's a hazard to everyone's health!" Weiss glared at Ruby again.

Blake sighed, and doing one last favor, blew her candle out, leaving the room in total darkness now.

Alix snickered a little at a dumb video he was watching, Jaune was glancing over his shoulder and trying to hold back laughter as well. It was from earlier with Ruby and Weiss's ridiculous argument in the courtyard, someone had recorded it. "I gotta send this to Yang tomorrow..." he closed his scroll.

* * *

**Commentary:** Time for this bit. This is the chapter where our main four girls first meet.(save for Ruby and Yang of course since they're sisters.) We're also introduced to one of Yang's shadow friends, who as I mentioned before will be a slightly recurring character. Another thing of note, I did combine both of the Shining Beacon Chapters here because they were only like 4-5 minutes on Youtube. Which to be fair on the DVD those episodes are combined anyway. Some dialogue is changed up here and there's a new scene thrown into the mix, but other than that not much else new here apart from the aforementioned dialogue changes. I think Ruby talking about how weapons can tell a lot about a person is just an interesting idea. She might also just be pulling that one out of nowhere so she can avoid social interactions who knows?


	7. Chapter 3: The First Step

The next morning came and the first thing one student would see upon waking up is a girl with short orange hair, bright green eyes and a generally bubbly disposition. "GOOD MORNING!" she excitedly exclaimed as the student she was talking to in question had long black hair, pink eyes and had a seemingly more composed demeanor about himself.

"It's Morning, it's Morning, it's Morning ITS MORNING!" the hyperactive girl exclaimed while going around the boy whom was merely going about his morning routine which included brushing his teeth, eating breakfast and doing weapon maintenance.

"We've been together for so long! But not together together!" the girl laughed.

"Oh so do you think we'll be on the same team together?! I hope we will! I hear the teams are chosen during initiation!" the girl explained in excitement. "We should have a special call to ensure we become teammates! What if... We made sloth noises?!"

"Nora." the boy interjected. "I don't think sloths make a lot of noise."

"Exactly, Ren! That's why it's perfect! We'll be on the same team together! But not 'Together Together'." Nora laughed while following behind Ren.

Jaune panicked while fumbling around the halls. "Oh what am I gonna do?! I don't know which locker has my stuff in it?!" he panicked before stumbling into another student. "Oh sorry!" he apologized to the imposing male before him. He had brown hair and looked pretty well built for someone that was a first year.

"Watch where you're going." he threatened.

"S-Sorry!" Jaune apologized, stumbling backwards, accidentally bumping into Alix whom was just about to open his locker.

"Seriously dude?" Alix groaned and stood himself up before Jaune got himself up off the ground.

"Finally I can show them what I can do!" Ruby took her weapon out of her locker eagerly.

"Someone's eager to get into the field." Yang smiled. "I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends!"

"Ugh, sis I just wanna fight monsters I don't need friends." Ruby rolled her eyes.

"Well you're gonna wind up on a team with someone so you better hope you find someone who you can get along with." Yang chuckled.

"Well why don't I just be on your team?" the younger sister stated.

"Um... How about no? you can try being on someone else's team? Maybe Jaune's team?" Yang offered.

"Yang Xiao Long, are you telling me that you don't want to be on my team?!" Ruby gasped, pretending to be offended.

"Well I mean, I'm not, but like it could be a better growing experience for you to not be around your big sister 24/7 ya know?" Ruby grumbled in annoyance.

Down the hall Weiss was talking with a red haired girl, she seemed to be built like an athlete at that.

"So Pyrrha, are you looking for any potential members of your team?" Weiss asked eagerly.

"None as far as I'm aware. Also I believe we're not getting much a say in team selection." she explained.

It was then that Jaune, whom had the locker next to Pyrrha's closed his locker and interjected. "Well, how about you be on my team, Snow Angel?" he winked.

Weiss scoffed. "As if I'd ever be on a team with you!" she turned away in disgust.

"I wouldn't mind being in your team!" Pyrrha smiled in a friendly tone.

"Oh? And who might you be?" Jaune asked.

"You mean you don't know me?" Pyrrha was genuinely surprised she wasn't recognized at all.

"You really don't know who she is?!" Weiss interjected now. "Pyrrha Nikos, a young and upcoming prodigy? She won over 4 tournaments in Mistral and made a name for herself as a public figure!" Weiss stomped her foot down.

"Um... Does not ring much of a bell to me." Jaune shook his head. "There's a lot of tournaments in Anima and I don't really watch them..."

"She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Cereal box you dunce!" she stomped her foot on the ground.

"Wait... That's you?!" Jaune finally put two and two together. "They only do that sort of thing for mascots and athletes!"

"Yeah, it's a shame the cereal isn't that good for you." Pyrrha shook her head.

"Well the offer to join my team still stands." he held his hand out.

"Well I for one don't encourage this type of behavior." Weiss stated.

"I'd love to!" Pyrrha smiled to his offer, seemingly playing along with him.

"Are you kidding me?! You shouldn't be encouraging him!"

"Oh stop it..." Jaune blushed and looked away.

"Seriously stop." Weiss's eye twitched before a javelin fly through the air suddenly.

"SORRY!" Pyrrha apologized.

"Would all students please report to Beacon Cliff for Initiation." Glynda's voice beamed through the speakers in the hall.

"Ow..." Jaune groaned, trying to get the javelin out of his hood. "I don't get it? Dad says all women look for is confidence..."

"Snow angel probably wasn't a good start." Yang snickered.

"Yeah buddy, you know there's more to it than that." Alix added as he walked ahead of the two sisters while Pyrrha took the Javelin from where it was stuck and Jaune was able to get up.

* * *

Everyone now stood at Beacon cliff, which stood tall, overlooking the Emerald Forest.

"Step onto the platforms." Ozpin instructed as all the students, a few reluctant, stepped onto the platform that had Beacon's logo.

"Today you will be tested for skill. You will be thrown into a forest with an objective. Now I can assure you that there are no Grimm out in these woods as we had several Huntsmen clear them out just for this. There will however still be obstacles around the forest such as traps left around from long ago and normal wildlife. It is up to you to find the temple where the relics will be held. Make no mistake, there is a viable chance for you to die in these woods. But as you all have signed the agreement that comes with your Beacon Scholarship... We are not accountable for any injuries that may incur during this initiation. We trust that you've trained enough, took the entrance exam and are prepared for what this work entails."

Ruby just rolled her eyes a little.

"Now then, to end one final misconception. You will be paired with a partner here." Ozpin started.

Ruby's eyes went wide. "W-What?!"

"The first person you make eye contact with upon landing will be your allotted partner for the next four years of your time at Beacon. And don't think you can cheat the system by picking someone else. We have ways of knowing." Ozpin sipped his coffee.

"WHAT?!" Ruby didn't want to believe this at all.

"I told you!" Nora chuckled to Ren.

"Now that we are done with your briefing, it is time to start. We trust that you are all prepared with your landing strategies."

"Landing what now?" Jaune was confused.

"You will be falling." Ozpin explained.

"Oh... Uh..." Jaune saw a few students start to get launched from their platforms. "Are we gonna get a parachute?"

"No, you have to use your own methods." Ozpin stated.

Yang smirked to her sister before turning to Alix and putting on a pair of aviators before she was launched off the cliff.

"Showoff." Alix rolled his eyes before getting launched as well.

Ruby smirked to Jaune and was launched as well now.

"W-What do you mean? Professor Ozpin what's a landing Strategeeeeeeeeeee-!" Jaune was launched from the cliff.

Ozpin smirked with as smug look of satisfaction that would only scream 'Damn, I love this job sometimes' before he took a sip from his mug.

A small bird flew over the Emerald forest before a red blur suddenly hit it. "BIRDIE NO!" Ruby exclaimed before transforming her weapon into it's sniper form and firing shots off, downward in an attempt to slow her momentum. She eventually transformed her weapon into it's scythe form and hooked it onto a large tree branch that she was able to spin around.

Weiss on the other hand was gracefully landing on glyphs and moving from glyph to glyph before descending into the forest, near where she assumed was the temple. The roof of the forest made it hard to see anything below it, likely on purpose so students like her couldn't aim for the temple right away.

Yang laughed and cheered while launching herself through the air, using her gauntlets. When suddenly Alix breezed past her, yawning a little at her, while riding on his daggers in their combined form like they were a skateboard, using Wind dust to keep his speed up. She glared a little and then flung herself even further ahead while Alix let up on his dust usage as he still needed some for what was to come and started to slow himself down, landing quite a ways back from where Yang landed, sliding into the ground on his daggers before hopping off them, kicking them up into the air which separated them and then catching them both, now walking forward.

Yang landed on the ground with a roll. "Nailed it!" she laughed before starting to look around, wondering if she maybe outran Alix.

Jaune screamed, flailing around before a Javelin suddenly hit him out of the air and impaled his hoodie on a tree. "Thank you!" he exclaimed.

Pyrrha on the other hand had dove through several trees, landing onto a branch and then aiming her javelin at the falling Jaune. She threw it right at him and hit her mark. "SORRY!" she called out.

Ruby landed and looked around before frantically sprinting forward. "Gotta find Yang, gotta find Yang!" she panicked now.

"Okay, okay Ruby. Think about your backups. Well there's always Jaune, he's nice. But I don't think he'd fare that good in a fight... What about Alix?! He knows you and your sister! Oh but he'll patronize me too much like Yang does, and it's even worse because he's a boy." Ruby grumbled internally at the thought. "Blake maybe? Nah... I doubt I'd be able to hold a chat with her. Who else have I met..." it was then that Ruby suddenly found her answer and not a moment too soon as a feral wolf leaped at Weiss from behind just as she had stabbed through one of them with Myrtenaster. Ruby fired a shot at it and the two made eye contact while the wolf dropped to the ground.

Weiss scoffed at Ruby and turned away, walking off. "You're not even gonna thank me?!" Ruby stomped her foot down. "We're supposed to be partners!" she followed her.

Weiss looked up and saw Jaune in the tree.

"Oh! Hey! Help me out here!" Jaune held his hand out towards her.

"..." Weiss turned away and grabbed Ruby by the hood. "By no means does this make us friends."

"You came back!" Ruby exclaimed happily as she was dragged off.

As the two left Pyrrha walked up and looked up at Jaune, crossing her arms with a smirk. "Need a hand?" she asked.

* * *

Alix walked for what felt like forever. "Yang?!" he called out, hoping to find her, but had no such luck. "Dammit. i shouldn't have egged her on. Now what am I gonna do?"

It was then that he heard the roar of a vicious animal in the distance. He sprinted forward and saw an unexpected sight. A girl hanging by her foot from a tree. Her hair was red, her eyes a deep yellow and her skin was fairly pale. It was hard to tell because the fact she was upside down. But her hair was done up in a short ponytail. She wore a bulky red turtleneck jacket along with a short black skirt that was worn over a pair of black shorts. She seemed to be stuck to the tree by her foot, Her boot notably had a blade coming out of it that Alix could only assume was a weapon.

Without a moment's hesitation Alix was up at the tree and offered a hand.

She took his hand and corrected herself. "I could have landed myself neater." the girl groaned, looking down and noticing that the large feral badger bear she had attracted was growling.

"You got a name?" Alix asked her.

"Erika." she stated.

"I'm Alix." he smiled to her before the two then leaped off the tree and at the badger bear.

* * *

Back with Ruby and Weiss the two didn't seem to be hitting things off too well. "i know we didn't get along at first." Ruby frowned. "But I can assure you, I'm a totally different person out in the field!" she zipped around her.

"I can hardly tell the difference." Weiss rolled her eyes. "Look, you're not exactly speeding this up."

"You want me to go fast?! I can go fast!" Ruby vanished in a blur of rose petals.

"You might be fast, but you're still excelling at wasting time!" she sighed as she continued through, her rapier still in hand, not noticing the shadow looming behind her. "Ruby?" she asked. The eyes of this shadow glowed red as Weiss was turning to face it now. They notably had odd markings on them as Weiss's eyes went wide. "RUBY!" she called out now as the shadow snarled and moved from the bush it was hiding in.

* * *

**Commentary:** Initiation time! And some more character introductions as well! With the rest of JNPR and another somewhat recurring character, Erika(She's not as recurring as Alix is though, so no need to get worried about that screen time being taken up). I loved writing out the landing strategies here. Apart from that, just some more character interactions in this chapter. Also I forgot to mention the Grimm level in the Emerald forest WILL be toned down and there will be some normal animals the teams have to fight as I do feel like having everyone fight Grimm right away makes things seem a little too easy and that these monsters aren't at all a threat. Which I still am of the belief that Grimm are more threatening because of sheer numbers alone. But you'll get more of that later on...


	8. Chapter 4: The Emerald Forest

Weiss blocked a swipe from a Beowolf as she ran right into a clearing, before turning around and steadying herself. She hadn't ever encountered a real creature of Grimm like this before, and just from that one hit she blocked, she felt that this was far more vicious than anything she had ran into before. But she wasn't about to back down because of this oversight. In fact, this would be an excellent chance for her to prove herself worthy of being a team leader. If she were to slay a creature of Grimm that had invaded the initiation she'd no doubt be recognized for that achievement alone.

"Left foot forward... No... Not that forward." Weiss muttered under her breath. "Just wait for an opening... NOW!" Weiss charged forward, but unfortunately was cut off in her attack when Ruby appeared in front of her suddenly and reared up to swing, the two crashed into each other and the Beowolf snarled before swiping at them. Ruby thinking fast, grabbed Weiss and the two sped away in a blur of white and red while the Beowolf merely howled but then smelled some other potential prey off in a different direction.

"What was that?!" Ruby whined at Weiss who merely huffed and walked off ahead of her.

"What was that?! You nearly got us killed with your stupid antics!" Weiss stomped as she glared at Ruby. "What's a child like you doing at Beacon anyways?!"

"Well maybe if your sense of direction was better, we wouldn't be lost right now!" Ruby snapped back at Weiss, cutting down a tree with Crescent Rose in rage as she followed behind Weiss before the pair stopped suddenly.

"I-Is that a Nevermore nest?" Weiss took a step back.

"it would seem like it." Ruby now brandished her scythe.

"We've clearly gone the wrong way. Let's leave before it wakes up. I would not want to end up on the wrong side of that giant Nevermore's beak." Weiss slowly took a step back as it's eye opened from dust that flew towards it from the tree Ruby had previously chopped down.

"Uh oh..." Ruby glanced at Weiss who looked as alarmed as her.

* * *

Yang started to look around the Forest. "Ruby!" she called out for her sister. "Alix?!" she also didn't mind the idea of partnering up with him.

"Ruby?" Yang peered over a bush but a Badger bear lunged at her instead. "Nope." She then chuckled while dodging a couple of more swipes from it.

"Jeez, is that all ya got? You couldn't hit the broadside of a-" everything suddenly went red for Yang as it would feel as though all time stopped for the girl as a single strand of her hair fell to the ground. "YOU MONSTER!" Yang screamed before unleashing a flurry of punches at it.

"**ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORAAAAA**!" Yang yelled out as the last one sent the badger bear flying through the foliage. Just as another one appeared right behind her. "YOU WANNA GO TOO?!"

however, a stab would be heard behind it's back as it fell down and a kusarigama attached to a ribbon flew from it's back and into the hands of Blake Belladonna who offered a bit of a smirk towards Yang, who's eyes turned from red to their normal lilac.

"Partners?" Yang asked.

"Yep." Blake nodded and continued ahead of Yang quietly.

* * *

Back with Jaune and Pyrrha, the two were merely walking through the forest., Pyrrha cutting through foliage in their way to clear their path out. She did however miss a branch that hit Jaune in the face and cut his cheek. "Ow..." he grunted.

"Say Jaune... Is your Aura not active?" Pyrrha asked, noticing the cut on his cheek. "Your aura should have healed that..."

Jaune looked down and away from her. "I... Never got mine activated before I came here." he admitted.

"Jaune... As I'm sure you know, Aura is one of the things that makes this job possible." Pyrrha stated.

"I could actually use a bit of a refresher.. I uh... Didn't do good on the topic back in my last school." Jaune admitted.

Elsewhere in the Forest it seemed as though Ren had found himself caught by a large constrictor snake that had disarmed him of his weapons.

"Aura is essentially our souls made visible. It protects us with a barrier. All living things have it."

The constrictor snake moved to bite at Ren's head, but it's teeth were halted by his free hand as his Aura seemingly was repelling it back, forcing it to let go of him, allowing him to catch his breath.

"All living things?" Jaune asked.

"Yes, that would include the animals we've been encountering in this forest. However, that doesn't include the Grimm. For they lack souls. They are the darkness to our light." Pyrrha explained.

Ren picked up his bladed pistols off the ground and ran at the constrictor snake while it hissed at him, firing at it.

"Sounds like the plot to a really cool video game!" Jaune remarked.

"It's a little more complicated then that. I'd be glad to tell you more after initiation." Pyrrha chuckled a little. "But for now." she took his hand and held one of her hands to his chest.

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." both Pyrrha and Jaune's auras glowed. Pyrrha's was a reddish color while Jaune's was a pure white.

"W-What'd you just do?" Jaune asked, looking at the glow that encompassed him now.

"I activated your aura." Pyrrha smiled as Jaune's cut now healed itself. "You seem to have a lot of it. Now, it won't heal grievous injuries like lost limbs or protect you from feeling pain. It will however provide you with a layer of personal protection. Again, we'll talk more about this after. For now, let's just continue. I think I see something ahead." Pyrrha started ahead with Jaune quickly following behind her.

Lie Ren took a deep breath as the snake was dead now before suddenly he heard something from right above him in the trees.

"PEERAW! PEERAW!" called out what would seem to be a strange animal till Nora descended from a tree, now hanging upside down in front of Ren with her usual goofy smile.

"I still don't think that's what Sloths sound like." Ren smiled back to her.

"Boop." Nora poked his nose with a giggle.

* * *

Back at the cliff Ozpin now sat on a bench that overlooked the entire cliff and was watching the footage of the initiation on his scroll.

"I still don't quite understand how that Ren boy can deal with Miss Valkyrie." Professor Goodwitch shook her head.

"That Jaune kid, doesn't seem to be the brightest either." noted another professor behind them that was walking up, also watching with a scroll in her hand. She wore a long labcoat over a black turtleneck sweater. Her pink hair was tied up neatly in a bun on her head.

"Professor Peach, glad you could join us." Ozpin smiled to his colleague as she sat down next to him.

"Professor Ozpin? What'd you choose as relics this year?" Goodwitch asked him before a slight alarm blared on all of their scrolls. Their footage was now focused on Ruby and Weiss, whom had just woken up the sleeping Nevermore.

"H-How could they have not found that?!" Professor Peach asked in concern.

"I don't know, but it seems as though these new students are going to be truly tested." Ozpin remarked.

"The few beowolf stragglers is one thing. But this..." Professor Goodwitch shook her head.

* * *

Ruby and Weiss were slowly circling around the nevermore, the pair walking around it, their weapons out and ready in case it attacked.

Ruby then smirked with an idea. "We're looking for the relics, right Weiss?" Ruby asked, speaking into her scroll to Weiss.

"Y-Yeah?" Weiss was nodding along.

"Let's get a better vantage point!" Ruby ran at the Nevermore and jumped up stabbing her scythe into it's lower body.

"YOU DOLT!" Weiss ran in as well, stabbing Myrtenaster in right next to where Ruby stabbed as the Nevermore cried out and started to flap out it's wings.

"Oh no!" Ruby panicked.

* * *

Alix and Erika came upon a clearing that seemed to be where some ruins were. "Hey, do you think..." before Alix could respond Erika sprinted ahead of him. "Hey wait up!" he ran after her.

Blake and Yang weren't too far away as Yang glanced over at the ruins. "Hey, do you think this is the spot?"

Blake simply shot her an annoyed glance before walking to the ruins.

"Hold up, Erika!" Alix called out as Erika snatched a black chess piece. It was notably a knight.

"Hey, ya gotta keep up if ya wanna have a say in teams!" she snarked as she pocketed the chess piece and turned away, but not before Alix stopped her just as Yang and Blake had arrived.

Yang noticed Alix, but before greeting him decided to pick a piece. "Hey, how about a cute pony?" Yang asked Blake.

Blake simply smiled and nodded. "Sure."

With that Yang took the White Knight piece and walked over to Alix. "So this place wasn't too hard to find, was it?"

"Yeah, I mean I kinda saw it a little from in the air. It was still out of the way of where we were launched though and pretty easy to miss." Alix shook his head.

Erika glanced over at Blake. The two staying quiet before Erika smirked to her. "Cute bow."

Blake just rolled her eyes at this interaction before walking over to Yang.

"We're going back now. You guys can tag along if ya want." Alix offered.

"I'm waiting on my sister. I'm sure she'll show up here any moment." Yang stated.

"Alright, suit yourselves then." Erika turned away and started ahead of Alix. "Hey, wait up!" he ran after her.

"Those two are colorful characters, aren't they?" Yang chuckled.

"You know, them don't you?" Blake tilted her head.

"I know Alix, not so much that girl he was with." she shook her head.

* * *

Jaune and Pyrrha happened upon a cave that had weird carvings on the outside of it. "This must be it!" Jaune remarked eagerly.

"Uh Jaune..." Pyrrha was still trying to decipher the carvings when she was pulled along with him into the cave.

Using just the light of his scroll they continued into the cave before Jaune tripped.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha called out in concern as he stood himself up, though the light in his scroll wasn't working anymore as a glowing yellow object floated in front of them.

"That's it Pyrrha! We found the relic!" he reached up and grabbed a hold of it. "Gotcha!"

"Um... Jaune..." Pyrrha remarked as the relic was starting to pick him off the ground.

It started to pull Jaune towards it, showing it's true face... it was a giant death stalker.

Jaune let out a scream in fear that seemingly reached the ruins, which turned out to not be too far from the cave.

"Some girl's in trouble!" Yang noted.

Alix and Erika were almost out of ear shot when they heard the scream. "We should help them." Alix insisted.

"Or we could go back. It's not really our business, is it?" Erika stated.

"Erika, we're huntsmen. It's our job to help people." he started to run back.

"Ugh... I hate it that you're right." Erika followed him now.

"Blake, what should we do?!" Yang asked before out of nowhere Ruby fell from the sky.

"HEADS UP!" she called out while falling towards Yang, giving her very little time to react.

* * *

**Commentary:** It is mostly similar interactions between characters, although again the Grimm here are played up as a force not to be trifled with as much. The Emerald Forest was supposed to be cleared of all Grimm before Initiation and the test was mainly to be consisting of fighting Normal animals in the forest. But it seems that there are still some Grimm about. Apart from that it's mostly similar. Jaune also does have a vague idea of what Aura is, even though he doesn't know the full extent. I feel like even your average joe on Remnant would have an idea of what aura is even if they don't know everything about it. Next time we get to end off Initiation.


	9. Chapter 5: Players and Pieces

"HEADS UP!" Ruby called out in a panic before getting knocked out of the air by Jaune whom was also seemingly flung out of nowhere. The two landing in branches... "Ugh..."

"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asked Yang. But before Yang could say something something shifted in the foliage of the forest.

A badger bear fell down, dead as Ren panted while leaning against a tree. "Nora, never do that again."

"Aww it's broken!" Nora whined as she jumped off the bear and then approached the chess pieces, picking up a White Bishop. "I'm Queen of the Castle! I'm Queen of the Castle!~" Nora sang out with a laugh.

"NORA!" Ren called out to her.

"Coming Ren!" she giggled as she walked back over to him.

"Did that girl just ride in on a Badger bear?" Blake was perplexed as Alix and Erika ran back from the forest.

"What'd we miss?!" he asked.

"I-" before Yang could even comment Weiss was yelling from a very high altitude, still hanging on for dear life as the Nevermore was flying in circles trying to shake her off.

"HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME?!" Weiss yelled. "YOU INSUFFERABLE LITTLE RED-" it was a good thing she was too high up to be clearly heard.

"She's gonna fall." Blake remarked.

"She'll be fine." Ruby assured.

"She's falling." Ren stated.

Jaune jumped up, trying to catch Weiss in his arms, just thinking about what cool thing he'd say to her when he caught her, only to fall short and land right on his face as Weiss landed right on him.

"My hero." Weiss scoffed.

"My back..." Jaune grunted.

Ruby then turned her attention to her sister. "Yang!"

Yang smiled to Ruby. "Ruby!"

before they could hug, Nora jumped up between them. "NORA!"

This only annoyed Yang more as her eye twitched and notably flickering between red and her normal lilac.

Pyrrha was suddenly flung through a tree and landed right in front of the entire group as the Deathstalker crashed through several trees.

"Did that girl just get flung here by a deathstalker?" Blake asked.

Yang was finally reaching her breaking point. Ruby and Alix both knew what this meant and braced themselves.

"I CANT TAKE IT ANYMORE! WOULD ALL OF YOU PEOPLE JUST CALM DOWN BEFORE SOMETHING ELSE HAPPENS?!" things were notably quiet for a moment as the Deathstalker finally got through the trees it knocked over.

"Perfect, here's my chance!" Ruby smirked as the Deathstalker had finally got through the trees and was approaching the group. She transformed her weapon into it's scythe form and threw herself at the beast only for her weapon to just scratch it's dense armor and bounce off, knocking her several feet back from it as it kept moving forward to attack her.

"Ruby!" Yang was running after her now as she got up and was about to run away when a feather shot down and stuck her cloak to the ground.

"Get out of there!" Alix called out as he cut through a feather that was blocking both him and Yang from getting through to her. A white blur moved past them both.

Ruby's eyes went wide as the Deathstalker's stinger was about to impale her when suddenly a wall of ice appeared in front of her, blocking the deathstalker's attack, along with a second wall that Ruby could now see Weiss had made that blocked more feathers that were flung in her direction.

"You're childish, a danger to everyone's health and trying way too hard." Weiss glared down at her as Ruby looked down sadly. "I admit... I went a little hard on you when we first met." she let out a sigh.

"I just want you to know I'm capable." Ruby stated.

"You're fine. Look we all have something to prove here." Weiss assured. "So why don't we regroup with the others, and come up with a plan? I promise to work with you, only if you agree to work with me."

Weiss offered a hand to Ruby that she took. "R-Right." Ruby nodded before starting with Weiss back towards the group as the Deathstalker was still struggling to free it's stinger.

Yang immediately ran up to Ruby and hugged her. "I'm so glad you're okay!" she looked to Ruby who then had a different sort of glint in her eyes. She walked over to the ruins and grabbed a White Knight Piece, while Jaune took the White Bishop.

"So, our goal is just to reach Beacon Cliff, right? I say we go back in that direction while fending these things off. Our goal isn't to fight them, it's to get to the cliff." Ruby spoke up.

"Run and survive? That's an idea I can get behind." Jaune nodded.

"When we get close enough the school's defense mechanisms should be able to deal with the Grimm." Alix assured.

Ruby then got up to a high enough point at these small ruins, spotting the cliff and telling everyone to follow her as they all did.

Yang paused for a moment, Blake took note of this as well. "Yang?"

"Oh... it's nothing." Yang could almost feel a proud tear well up in her eyes before she then followed her sister's command and started towards the cliff.

As they ran they seemingly reached a dead end with more ruins, these ruins having been built into the side of the cliff as Ruby then saw the Deathstalker following behind them.

"We need suppressing fire!" Jaune directed as Nora smirked and fired her grenade launcher at the Deathstalker, that while not denting it's armor did stagger it, and slow it down more. Ren fired from his twin pistols at the beast and Ruby shot at it before a feather grazed her face.

Pyrrha was aiming at the Nevermore when the Deathstalker started to rush at everyone. Blake and Ren switched gears to start cutting at the Deathstalker's legs, but it merely swatted them aside with it's pincers. Everyone was now falling back further to the ruins that had not much support over this deep and seemingly never ending chasm that bordered Beacon and the Emerald Forest.

Nora just barely jumped out of the way of the Deathstalker's Stinger, but the result was her slamming into Blake and knocking her over the edge.

"Blake!" Yang called out in concern before her eyes went red and she fired at the Deathstalker as the Nevermore continued to circle the cliff and fire out more feathers at the group.

Alix was using the wind dust in his daggers to blow back the feathers while Erika was jumping on the feathers. In a desperate bid to reach the Nevermore while it circled around them, she however fell short and landed herself slightly higher up on the ruins.

Blake, now falling quickly regained her composure and threw her weapon at the ruins, stabbing into the side of a pillar that she then, using her ribbon swung around, coming face to face with the nevermore now. She brought her weapon back to her and started slashing at the Nevermore's back with her weapon's bladed sheath. She didn't damage the Nevermore, but she did sever a lot of feathers from it's back before jumping again and landing right beside Ruby who took note of this and smirked before firing a couple of shots at the Nevermore before her clip was drained and she started to reload.

"It's tougher than it looks." Blake stated transforming her weapon into it's glock form.

"Then we'll hit it with everything we've got!" Yang reloaded Ember Celica as the Nevermore flew right at them.

Weiss created several glyphs behind her and fired off icicles at the beast, Yang fired off Ember Celica's flare like rounds at it, Ruby fired Gravity dust rounds from Crescent Rose which were heavier and Blake fired from her glock before the Nevermore slammed through the ruins they stood on. The four girls quickly ascending the ruins more to an area that wasn't destroyed.

As they slammed through the ruins, Nora and Jaune were separated from Pyrrha and Ren with now a chasm between the two.

"We need to get over there!" Nora took a step forward.

"Y-Yeah but i can't make that jump..." Jaune lamented.

Nora simply smirked to him as she pressed a button on her grenade launcher and it transformed into a warhammer. She then slammed it right into the ground, launching Jaune at the Deathstalker. Pyrrha raised a hand up and Jaune's trajectory changed for a brief moment, landing just beside her as Nora flew forward and slammed her hammer into the Deathstalker's head, pulling the trigger again and hitting it with an electrically charged explosion that made it stagger back more.

Ren, seeing this opportunity, climbed up the Deathstalker's tail and fired off several shots between the tail and the stinger before the Deathstalker's tail flung him right off and into a wall harshly, his aura shattering instantly that moment.

"REN!" Nora called out, glaring at the Deathstalker and firing more rounds from her weapon in it's rocket form.

Jaune then saw how much damage Ren had done to the Deathstalker's stinger with how it dangled and looked to Pyrrha. "Pyrrha, cut it!"

Pyrrha threw her shield at the stinger and it fell off, landing right on the Deathstalker's head.

"Nora!" Jaune motioned for her as he and Pyrrha both lifted their shields up. "Nail it!"

Nora smirked and transformed her weapon into it's hammer form again and jumped onto their shields. Jaune notably struggling with the weight as Nora fired a shot off into the shields, knocking Jaune on his back, but Pyrrha Jumped upwards, which launched Nora even higher into the air as she then sat on her hammer and laughed to herself before she descended down towards the Deathstalker. Firing another shot off to boost her speed as she then slammed her hammer into the stinger which impaled the deathstalker's head.

_I couldn't take it,_

_Couldn't stand another minute,_

_Couldn't bear another day without you in it,_

_All of the Joy that I had known for all my life,_

_Was stripped away from me the minute that you died_

It also collapsed the bridge that Jaune and Pyrrha both quickly jumped off of, Jaune landing not so gracefully on his face, Pyrrha landing almost like a super hero. Nora clumsily landed on her butt, but giggled a little as Ren got up and looked up at Team RWBY's fight with the Nevermore before passing out from exhaustion.

_To have you in my life is all I've ever wanted,_

_But now without you I'm a soul forever haunted,_

_Can't help but feel that I had taken you for granted,_

_No way in hell that I can ever comprehend this!_

Yang stood atop a pillar firing off round after round at the Nevermore while it circled her. Before it lunged at her again. This time she jumped right at it's open mouth. Holding it open and now firing into it. "I. Hope. You're. HUNGRY!" she yelled as she jumped off, almost missing her jump, but thankfully getting boosted from a gust of wind from Alix's dagger that also pushed the Nevermore more off course and in the direction of the cliff, slamming right into it.

Alix shot a Salute to Yang as him and Erika then turned towards the others.

_I wasn't dreaming when they told me you were gone,_

_I was wide awake and feeling that they had to be wrong _

_How could you leave me when you swore that you would stay?_

_Now I'm trapped inside a nightmare every single Effing day!_

"Weiss." Ruby looked to her as she then rushed towards the Nevermore.

The Nevermore was starting to reorient itself when Weiss jumped at it, stabbing Myrtenaster into it's tail feathers, creating a wall of ice that now kept it pinned down as she then glided herself back over to everyone else.

_I know you didn't plan this,_

_You tried to do what's right._

_But in the middle of this Madness,_

_I'm the one,_

_You left to win this fight!_

Blake threw her weapon at Yang who caught it and stabbed it into the pillar she was standing atop. Ruby then jumped up, using a shot to propel herself upwards, landing right onto the ribbon as Weiss then held it in place with a glyph as Ruby landed right beside her.

"So you sure this will work?" Weiss asked.

"I'm fairly certain. So long as you can make the shot." Ruby grinned cheekily.

"Hmph. Can I?" Weiss smirked.

"Can y-" before Ruby's question could be answered she was cut off.

"Of course I CAN!" Weiss then immediately launched Ruby at the cliff.

_Red Like Roses,_

_Fills my head with dreams and finds me,_

_Always closer,_

_To the emptiness and sadness that have come to take the place of you._

Ruby caught the Nevermore's neck with her scythe as Weiss then created glyphs in front of Ruby who then used them to help her sprint up the while as she fired off shots from her scythe, dragging the Nevermore with her up to the top where one last shot was all she needed to behead the beast, it's head landing right behind her as it's body then fell to the ruins below, dissolving into nothing as it fell.

Ruby then turned towards everyone else at the bottom of the cliff and smiled.

"Well... That was a thing." Yang chuckled a little to everyone. Blake just rolled her eyes, Alix chuckled.

* * *

"...Dove Bronzewing and Cardin Winchester. Together you four will form Team CRDL, lead by Cardin Winchester." Professor Ozpin announced as the next group stepped up to the stage.

"Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the White Bishop pieces. Together you will form Team JNPR. Lead by Jaune Arc."

"L-Lead by?!" Jaune was surprised.

"Congratulations Young Man." Ozpin smiled as as Pyrrha did the same while putting a hand on Jaune's shoulder which made him blush a little and look away with Nora cheering and Ren just silently smiling to himself.

"Next up Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the White Knight pieces. Together you shall form Team RWBY. Lead by Ruby Rose." Professor Ozpin took a sip of his coffee.

Ruby was surprised by this and Yang just attacked her sister with a hug. "I'm so proud of you!"

Blake smiled as well but Weiss's face turned to a grimace. "Unbelievable..." she muttered under her breath, but decided to keep her composure as she offered the best fake smile she could.

* * *

In a dimly lit office... Roman Torchwick cursed to himself as he took a seat at his desk. His mysterious assistant whom was a short woman with Neopolitan ice cream colored hair sat on his desk coyly, kicking her legs out. "I'm sorry Neo... Ends aren't gonna be meeting today." he shook his head.

Neo frowned but then Roman's scroll lit up with a message. "Need help?" he looked down at it suspiciously, especially since the number was blocked and then looked to Neo, almost as if he thought this was some sort of prank.

Neo merely shook her head in denial.

"Like I'd answer to this." he scoffed, deleting the message before he then received a call.

"Okay, now listen here you-!" before another word could be said Roman stopped talking. He nodded along. "Resources? Yes... Uh huh... Meet you, where now?" Roman picked his cane up and started towards the door, Neo following behind him.

He tried to stop Neo from following him but then he let out a sigh, looking out the window... "Alright, she'll come too." Roman hung up.

"Seems like our little operation is about to get bigger." a smirk formed on his face as he then took out a cigar, lighting it up and leading the way for the two of them.

* * *

**Commentary:** That does it for Initiation. Most of it happened very similar to canon, Though there are a couple of additions to the fight that don't help too much, some of how the fight turns out is a little different with the Nevermore using it's projectile attack more and the couple of extra fighters... Where we really start to deride is at the ending when Roman is first approached by a mysterious new benefactor. Wonder who that is?


	10. Chapter 6: The 'Me' in Team

Weiss was resting peacefully in her bed when suddenly Ruby appeared beside her, grinning eagerly as she held a whistle in her hand. She immediately blew on the Whistle and Weiss fell out of bed screaming.

"WAKE UP!" Ruby yelled as Weiss sat up.

"You could have just told me my alarm didn't work..." Weiss rubbed her eyes before Ruby blew the Whistle in her face again, making her stagger back more.

"We have to get to work!" Ruby stated.

"Work? On what?" Weiss grunted while standing up.

"On the most important task for a team to do on their first day!" Ruby exclaimed.

"DECORATING!" Yang grinned holding up her arms full of various items including CDs, rolled up posters and several other miscellaneous objects.

"We do have a lot of unpacking to do..." Blake stated, holding up her small luggage, that accidentally flung open. "And organizing..."

_Don't you worry about the dark,_

_I will light up the Night with the life in my heart,_

_I will burn like the sun _

_I will keep you safe and warm_

The team got to work setting up their dorm room, with Blake stacking various books onto a shelf, but notably tucking a couple in the very back of the shelf, hidden behind other books, her eyes darting from side to side.

Yang was hanging her posters up and also putting her CDs onto a little CD shelf she brought with her.

_Like the smell of a Rose on a Summer's day,_

_I will be there to take all your fears away,_

Weiss hung up a painting to liven the room's look and make it look a little more sophisticated.

Ruby hung the curtains up, using her scythe to help her do it, but wound up having to stitch the curtain back together after it ripped upon her moving her scythe down.

_With the touch of a hand _

_I will turn your life to..._

The room was ready and...

"This is a total mess." Blake stated.

"Yeah..." Yang agreed, noting all the clutter and how the beds were practically stacked on top of each other in an uneven mess.

"We have to do something with this..." Weiss admitted.

"Why don't do bunk beds?!" Ruby grinned.

"Sounds great!" Yang raised a fist up confidently.

"It would help at space saving..." Blake agreed.

"Well how about we put it to a vote." Weiss argued.

"I think we just did." Yang chuckled before the four got to work.

Needless to say, it was still a mess, but it was at least manageable and livable.

"Now that room set up is done... It's time for class. First today we have Grimmology at 9 AM with Professor Port... Ooh I remember him..." Ruby laughed a little.

"Oh yeah, Dad's friend." Yang rolled her eyes, remembering his long winded stories. "Well maybe he won't be as bad in class as he is when he's hanging out with Dad..."

"Wait... 9 AM?" Weiss paused.

Before anyone could question Weiss she pointed to the clock she hung up in the room.

"It's 8:55!"

In that instant all the girls, quickly dashed out of the room, Yang notably still adjusting her uniform and Ruby stumbling a bit from putting on her shoes still.

"8:55?!" Jaune panicked as Nora shoved him over and started barreling down the hall with the rest of her team following in pursuit of her.

Professor Ozpin merely chuckled a little while taking a sip of his morning coffee and Glynda was looking at her wrist watch.

Outside of Port's classroom stood Alix who held open the door for the two Teams to enter and followed them in himself, sitting closer to the front.

* * *

The class was about as boring as Yang and Ruby dreaded. Between important talks of Grimm biology and the fact that they're attracted to fear and other negative emotions Port was inserting his own long winded stories about his own experiences with some of these Grimm. Though there was the information of what these Grimm's weaknesses were, such as the Boarbatusk's underbelly being it's weakness and the joints of the Ursa Major's heavily armored body being it's main weakness.

Yang slammed her head on the desk a few times to keep herself awake. Ruby was doodling and giggling to herself.

Blake was just silently listening, though it was clear from a yawn that she was getting tired. Weiss seemed to be the only member of team RWBY giving her whole attention to his stories and useful information.

Weiss however also couldn't help but grit her teeth in slight annoyance at Ruby's behavior. Ruby, showing Yang a silly drawing of Professor Port that she did that made her laugh. She even flashed it in Alix's direction which made him need to step outside to laugh.

Ruby was acting like a complete buffoon and it was getting on Weiss's nerves.

She would be having a word with Ruby after class.

Soon enough class would end and Weiss pulled Ruby over.

"Ruby, I thought you'd be setting a better example." Weiss's eyes narrowed.

"What? I know Professor Port him and Oobleck come over to hang out with our Dad a lot! He's like exactly the same here except more boring!" Ruby explained.

"But does that excuse behaving like that in class? This isn't your home. This is Beacon Academy one of the most prestigious schools in all of Remnant! Show a little respect." Weiss glared.

"Hey, step off my sister." Yang shoved Weiss away as she was starting to get in Ruby's face again. "We're on a team and we need to work together." she insisted.

Weiss merely turned away. "I already want to ask Ozpin about transferring teams." she walked off as Ruby frowned a bit and Yang just glared at her.

"D-Don't pay any mind to her Ruby." Yang stated. "She's just being Weiss."

Ruby just took a deep breath and smiled again, determined to not let this get the better of her next class.

* * *

The next class of the day was with Professor Anne Greene, Team exercises. In this class, first year students were tasked with working with their teammates on various assignments. The first assignment was simple, have a friendly discussion with your teammates to better understand them. There was a questionnaire given, but the students didn't have to follow along with it as it was only to guide them if they weren't sure what to discuss.

Weiss looked intently at the questionnaire thinking about a question to ask.

"Oh! I know, what's your favorite food?!" she asked.

"I really like Strawberries." Ruby smiled. "They're tasty and just such perfect sweet fruits!"

"I gotta say, I love me a good bowl of ramen~ Though my Dad's Rice noodles are the best too..." Yang bit her lip, wishing so hard she could have a bowl now.

"I fancy seafood." Blake answered plainly, while looking more to her notebook.

"Well, I love a good crumpet." Weiss stated.

Ruby couldn't hold in a chuckle at the word Weiss just said.

Weiss just rolled her eyes before turning her attention back to the list of questions.

"Say, Weiss... Why did you want to go to Beacon?" Ruby asked her, which seemed very out of the blue and much to her surprise.

"Yeah, why didn't you go to Atlas?" Yang added.

"It's... None of your business." Weiss stated flatly, clearly not wanting to continue this line of questioning.

"S-Sorry." Ruby apologized and looked away.

Weiss just rolled her eyes at Ruby's shrinking attitude while Yang tried to change the subject to something simple.

"What's your favorite colors?" she asked. "Mine's Yellow."

"Black." Blake stated plainly.

"White." Weiss was still reading the questionnaire.

"Red." Ruby answered, slowly straightening herself out before Weiss shot her another glare, scaring her now into hiding herself with her hood.

Yang let out a sigh, this wasn't going to work.

* * *

Soon enough class had ended and it was only now time for lunch break. Weiss sat at a far end of the cafeteria, away from everyone else and made sure to wipe off her seat and section of the table before sitting down.

Ruby was still hiding herself with her hood.

Yang pulled it down and sat down next to her as Alix joined them. "C'mon sis, you can't let her just push you around like this."

"Yeah, I mean look, my teammates give me a hard time, but sometimes ya just gotta push back." Alix stated patting his chest confidently which made Ruby chuckle a bit since he didn't look cool doing it, but rather more silly.

"Ow, please stop!" cried a girl as Cardin Winchester of Team CRDL was pulling on her bunny ears.

"See? I told ya they were real." Cardin snarked before letting go of her ear and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Ya know, I think we might have an opening in our team's dorm room for a maid." Russel Thrush smirked which just made the girl shudder before Jaune stepped up and got between them.

"H-Hey leave her alone!" Jaune stated, clearly trying to deepen his voice as Cardin looked unimpressed with him and the brown haired girl just walked away to another end of the cafeteria

Blake saw her walk off and followed her to make sure she was alright. Weiss simply scoffed at the two.

Jaune's bravado didn't last too long against Cardin as Cardin merely took Sky's almost finished food tray and dumped it onto Jaune.

"Hey, don't you worry Sky, our new buddy Jaune will pay for your food." he laughed as Jaune groaned.

Ruby crushed the now empty milk carton she was holding in her hand as she decided she would step up to this bully now. If there was one thing Ruby didn't like, it was a bully and Cardin was such a bully.

Without even a warning Ruby moved to dump her trash filled tray onto him, only to bump right into Weiss who was going to throw out her own food. The end result was both girls covered in garbage.

"YOU DOLT!" Weiss stood up and when Ruby got back up, slapped her across the face. The resulting slap was loud enough that everyone in the entire cafeteria stopped what they were doing. Even Cardin was looking frightened as he decided to drop the act turn back to his teammates.

"Weiss I was just-" Ruby tried to argue but Weiss walked off before she could say another word, the door slamming behind her.

* * *

**Commentary:** Here we have our first original chapter! Alright, it has bits and pieces of other chapters, but generally speaking the new content outweighs the old. Here we have some building tension to the team's drama that's mostly going to be what this current arc is about. Although Jaune's arc with Cardin is also going to be squeezed into here as a sort of sub-arc to this already going on arc if that makes sense. Pretty much I'm having both happen around the same time frame. Also Professor Anne Greene is an actual character in RWBY. in the "After the Fall" novel, she's mentioned as being a professor of Stealth and Security, at least for second years. I assume she also would teach another class, so she's also in charge of the team building class where the teams learn to work with one another. I also couldn't resist squeezing "_Gold_" into the part where the team is decorating their room, I just felt like it fits.

But yeah, most of the serious plot stuff is gonna be on hold for this arc. Although, if we are being fair it IS pretty important that our main characters learn to get along with one another. Will they? Or won't they? I suppose we'll find out soon.


	11. Chapter 7:Dance of Petals and Snowflakes

"We're supposed to be teammates..." Ruby muttered under her breath as she then took a deep breath in and followed after Weiss.

"Weiss, please I wasn't trying to walk into you!" Ruby apologized. "I'm sorry!" she yelled out as Weiss finally struck her last nerve with the girl.

"You're not cut out to be a leader." she stated flatly. "It should have been me."

"But I..." Ruby slumped down as the cafeteria was starting to empty out and it was time for sparring sessions next.

Blake followed the rabbit faunus girl from the cafeteria and stopped her, grabbing a hold of her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?" she asked.

The girl turned towards Blake, wiping a tear from her eye as she nodded. "Y-Yes... Thanks for your concern."

"You shouldn't let bullies like that trample over you." Blake stated.

"But, if I did that wouldn't I just be stooping to his level?" the girl asked. "I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself, I'm Velvet, Velvet Scarlatina, I'm a second year student it's nice to meet you." she smiled to Blake.

"Blake Belladonna." Blake nodded. "And that's still no way to allow things to happen." she shook her head. "Especially as an upperclassmen."

"Belladonna... That name sounds familiar." Velvet pondered as Blake's eyes darted from side to side.

"B-Back to the topic." Blake stated, wanting to switch gears. "Why do you let Cardin bully you?" Velvet.

"Sorry. Back to that, I figured that if he does all his hateful stuff here, he might not do it out in the field when actual people need saving." Velvet reasoned. "I just don't believe in resolving something like hatefulness with violence."

"I... Can sympathize." Blake watched as the cafeteria was starting to clear out.

"I mean there has to be a reason you're hiding your-" before Velvet could continue a voice called out to her, it sounded distinctly female. "Oh, I'm sorry Blake I have to get going. We can talk some other time if you'd like, Look up team CFVY if you'd like to find me. That's C-F-V-Y." she smiled, posing with a peace sign and a hand on her hip before the voice called out to her again. "Coming Coco!" she ran back over to the stylishly dressed girl.

Blake smiled a little, but also took a deep breath. "That was a little too close." she made her way over to the amphitheater for the sparring sessions.

* * *

As Professor Goodwitch began her lecture on sparring etiquette, explaining how this would function on similar rules to a tournament. A participant may be allowed to forfeit, and the fighting must stop when one fighter's aura reaches below 20% and falls into a "red" zone. However there have been incidents where auras can drop drastically from a heavy hit and that all students should try to remain aware of their aura pools as they fight. Ruby moved herself away from Weiss and next to her sister.

Professor Goodwitch had just finished when Ruby stood up. "Oh? Miss Rose, would you like to start today's sparring matches?"

"I uh..." Ruby was nervous now, she couldn't say no after getting herself into this position. "Yes." she nodded and quickly went to the locker room to change to her combat gear.

"Now who would like to spar against her?" A few hands shot up, among those hands were Cardin Winchester, Erika Summers and Weiss.

"Miss Schnee, you would like to spar against your team's leader?" Professor Goodwitch asked as the girl nodded, a confident smirk on her face as she went down to get herself ready as well.

"Oh no..." Yang shuddered now, realizing what was likely going to happen here.

Ruby stepped out, now fully geared up as she looked to the stands, wondering who she was gonna be fighting. She was looking for her team, she saw just about everyone there except... "Weiss..." she looked down as Weiss stepped out from behind her, with her own combat garb on, along with her weapon.

"Now, you know the rules, 5 minute time limit and you must stop once one of your aura's hits below 20%, one of you rings out or one of you forfeits." Glynda explained as Ruby drew out Crescent Rose, transforming it into it's scythe form.

The two girls nodded in understanding as Weiss drew out Myrtenaster, pointing it forward. "If all is understood..." Glynda took a few steps back. "Let the match begin."

Weiss dashed forward in a blur lunging straight for Ruby, who ducked to the side to dodge as she then attempted to catch Weiss from behind with her scythe in a spin attack that Weiss back flipped away from, landing gracefully on her feet as Ruby then aimed a shot from her sniper at the heiress. Weiss created a wall of ice that blocked the bullet and then pointing her hand forward when Ruby dashed towards her with accelerated speeds, shattered the ice in Ruby's direction, catching her off guard, and making her fall back. Ruby's Aura taking the hit and now falling into 85%.

Ruby stood herself up as Weiss made 6 light blue glyphs appear behind her, draining her aura down to the same level as Ruby's before the glyphs all fired out icicles at her. Ruby barely had time to react, but was able to deflect the first five, getting hit in the arm by the last one as Weiss then charged forward, slashing downward with Myrtenaster. Ruby barely being able to raise Crescent Rose to block Weiss's assault of slashes and stabs that dwindled her aura down to 50% on the Amphitheater's screen.

Weiss smirked eagerly as she didn't let up, but Ruby then, gritting her teeth with tears starting to form in her eyes, spun around with accelerated speed, tripping Weiss up onto her back as Ruby then, dragging her scythe along the ground slashed upwards, knocking Weiss into the air and dealing a massive hit to her aura that dropped her to 50%. Weiss created a glyph that quickly caught her before she hit the ground and launched herself off of it at Ruby who, aiming her scythe at the ground dodged Weiss's attack by jumping from the recoil of a sniper round and then spun around, bringing her weapon down at Weiss, who thanks to a carefully timed glyph caught Ruby, then flung her off and onto her back.

Ruby quickly picked herself up and slashed at Weiss again, the girl gracefully dodging Ruby's attacks before landing right onto her scythe and stabbing forward with Myrtenaster. Ruby smirked now, transforming Crescent Rose into it's sniper form, which in turn caused Weiss to fall off of it as she then fired off a couple of shots, one of which, clipped Weiss on the shoulder, before she blocked the next one. Both of their Auras were now at 30% and it was clear Weiss wasn't about to let this match end out of her favor.

Focusing her aura, a new glyph appeared, this one was black and Ruby suddenly couldn't move. Weiss then created a white glyph behind her and launched herself at the trapped Ruby, making several other glyphs appear around her as she slashed at Ruby disarming her of her scythe and then bounded off the next glyph at Ruby, hitting her again before bounding off the next one and hitting her with a combo of stabs and rebounds from these glyphs till Ruby's Aura shattered and she landed gracefully at her feet.

"The match is done. The winner is, Miss Schnee." Professor Goodwitch stated as the lights came back on in the room and Weiss curtsied, turning to Ruby who was having a slightly hard time getting up. The scoreboard showing her Aura was only just slowly regenerating from 0%.

"Hmph." Weiss gave a glance to Ruby as she walked off to the locker hall to switch out of her combat gear.

"If you need to, you may head over to the infirmary Miss Rose." Glynda stated as Ruby went off to the locker hall without another word, trying her hardest to avoid Weiss there.

* * *

"Next up, Mr. Winchester how about you pick your opponent." Glynda stated as Cardin smirked. Ruby was back in the stands with her hood over her head as Yang put a hand on her shoulder. Ruby brushed it off.

Cardin chose a student in the front row that had dog ears as his faunus trait. To say he had an easy time with this student would be an under statement, he was relentless on them.

This again made Blake bite her tongue as he kept himself in top shape through the next fight with another faunus student that he picked because of them being scrawny. Alix, who was sitting next to Yang was about to raise his hand to challenge Cardin when Jaune did.

Cardin smirked as Jaune stepped out in his combat gear.

"There's no way he's going to win against Cardin." Yang shook her head.

"I don't know, Jaune is pretty clever." Pyrrha reasoned as she watched Jaune dodge Cardin's heavy swings, albeit barely dodge them given by how the attacks kept almost making contact.

"Cleverness can only get you so far if you don't have the strength or skill to back it up." Ren stated as Jaune blocked an attack of Cardin's with his shield, which knocked it out of his hand. Losing his best method of Defense Jaune clashed blades with Cardin who smirked at him, now having Jaune at the edge of the arena.

"This is the part where you lose." Cardin stated before Jaune suddenly let go of his weapon and tackled Cardin to the ground in a very unorthodox move.

"Over my dead body!" Jaune grit his teeth as he attempted to wrestle Cardin's weapon from his hand, however in this attempt he pressed the button that activated the dust in it, Cardin pointing it at Jaune and Jaune getting engulfed in an explosion that instantly shattered his aura and sent him flying out of the ring.

"Ow..." Jaune groaned as Cardin stood up, brushing himself off...

"Amateur." Cardin scoffed.

Alix grit his teeth as he shot his hand up, Cardin smirking in his direction before Glynda stepped up to the stage. "i'm afraid that's all we have time for today." she stated. "Do try to remember students, that this is only sparring and that everyone here is learning." she glared at Cardin, which actually did manage to scare him.

Out in the hallway it was a completely different scene from when everyone had entered the Amphitheater. Weiss was walking out smiling confidently, but briefly shooting a glare in Ruby's direction. Ruby's head was hung low, and Jaune was still holding his side with Pyrrha trying to help him.

"What a mess." Alix remarked as Yang turned around and faced him with a smile.

"So I hear the upperclassmen are throwing a party tonight at a place just off the airship stop. Wanna come?" she sounded eager.

"But don't you have your teammates to be concerned with?" Alix asked, pointing to the downtrodden Ruby, the confident Weiss and Blake still being distant.

"Eh, it'll sort itself out." Yang brushed it off before sighing a bit. "I already tried helping before anyways. If there's anything my Uncle Qrow taught me, it's that when you tried, you've tried. No sense in pushing yourself too hard if it's not you with the issue. I can't make Weiss think differently about my sister and Ruby usually bounces back from stuff like this. Trust me, she'll be her normal cheery self in no time!" she assured.

"If you say so..." Alix sighed. "I'll see about meeting you on the way there. You might need a sober friend to take you home."

* * *

Roughly **3 weeks** had passed since this conversation... In this time, after classes Ruby would shut herself away from everyone else either in the dorm room, on her bed or generally just away from Weiss if anything. She still did remain in steady contact with Jaune and Yang, but those two didn't seem to understand how she felt. Weiss on the other hand has been performing her hardest and has de-facto taken up the role of leader of the team despite not being officially made it... The main issue Weiss has been dealing with is that no one will take orders from her, Yang's typically too hungover to listen, Ruby's too frightened to say anything and Blake just seems annoyed when Weiss orders her to do something as the team's leader and doesn't listen. As for Team JNPR, Jaune has been missing from their dorm room on a regular basis and has been hanging out with Cardin far more than his own team. He assures his teammates that he's only doing Cardin favors, but it's painfully obvious that Cardin has something over Jaune that's been keeping him away from his team.

When the time had come for evaluations in Professor Greene's class she clearly expressed disgust with team RWBY's grades specifically.

After class the four were held back for a discussion.

Professor Greene adjusted her glasses "Atrocious... Your grades are, that is." she stated as she placed the assignment which was graded with an F onto the table.

"Well maybe if someone here would listen to what we needed to do!" Weiss glared at Ruby

Ruby hid behind her sister who yawned tiredly.

"And you're no better, Yang Xiao Long! You're always so tired! Why don't you care about your own grades here?!" Weiss stomped her foot on the ground.

Yang just groaned, wiping sleep from her eyes. "Maybe I'd care if you weren't acting bossy, Ice Queen."

"Well I'd never!" Weiss was fuming now.

"Miss Belladonna, you're contributing fine to the assignment, however this lack of communication with your teammates has affected your score." Professor Greene stated which made Blake look down, her bow slightly twitching as she did.

"That is why..." Professor Greene raised her voice which stopped Weiss from going any further on her own tirade. "I'm sending you up to Professor Ozpin's office for assistance. I can't help a team that doesn't want to help itself. That will be all." she pointed them to the door.

* * *

Professor Ozpin sat at his desk, sipping from his mug, looking at the four girls who sat before him. "You four have had quite the first few weeks." the headmaster chuckled.

"These three, won't listen to me when I tell them we have to get our work done!" Weiss argued.

"Why should they? You're not the team's leader." Ozpin leaned forward at his desk.

"I'm not... But I should be! These past few weeks I've shown that I'm more capable than Ruby is!" Weiss stomped her foot on the ground like the spoiled kid she was.

"Why are you in my office then?" Professor Ozpin smirked and it shut Weiss up as she looked down. "Miss Rose... Tell me, how do you feel?"

"I feel like I let everyone down." she stated. "I'm not a good leader and-"

"Don't tell me what Weiss thinks about you. Tell me what you, think about you."

Ruby took a deep breath, the tension in the air was feeling a bit easier on her now. "I... I want to try." Ruby stated. "I want to try and be a good leader. I haven't had a real chance to be one and the pressure of being one is scary." she explained.

Ozpin simply smiled. "Alright then." he then turned towards Yang. "I've been made aware... Of your current night time 'rituals' by a couple of concerned friends of yours. Miss Xiao Long, Beacon Academy is a prestigious school to go to, that most young people on Remnant would very much love to go to. You have an opportunity-" he was cut off by Yang speaking up.

"I get that I have an opportunity Professor, but I've been keeping my own grades up." Yang stated. "So has Blake for that matter."

"I understand that, but for Professor Greene's class and throughout your career here at Beacon, you four must work as one unit." Ozpin stated. "You have to learn to work as one unit and adapt. Miss Rose, I understand you have many apprehensions about your role as a team leader, Miss Schnee, I'm aware you have your digressions with my decision to make Miss Rose the team leader of Team RWBY. Miss Belladonna, I'm aware of your nature as a person, but you need to learn to be more open with your teammates as this is the only way you will graduate. And Miss Xiao Long, your habits have allowed your own team to fall into the current state it has. This is why I'm afraid I must assign some help for you girls." Ozpin began.

The elevator at the end of the office opened, the four turned towards it and out walked a team of students. Among them was the familiar face of Velvet, along with the rest of her teammates.

"Team CFVY, for the next two months you will be assigned to assist Team RWBY."

Ruby looked at them with stars in her eyes. "Whoa..."

"Alright, let's whip you girls into shape." Coco Adel smirked confidently as she put a hand on her hip.

* * *

**Commentary**: Here we have another mostly original chapter in terms of content. In which Weiss beats Ruby in a fight and assumes role as leader of team RWBY despite that not being officially granted to her. Pretty much the team's out of touch with one another and they're not getting along at all. Again this chapter is just more escalation of the message that Team RWBY aren't exactly a perfect team just yet with a slight time skip.


	12. Chapter 8: The Burden to bear

"WHAT?! The cool upper class team, Team CFVY is gonna help us?!" Ruby exclaimed. "This is gonna be so cool!" she beamed with excitement.

Coco seemed to be looking at the four girls and assessing them based on their reactions to this.

Blake immediately took a shining to Velvet and greeted her politely.

Yang just waved tiredly to the whole team.

Fox seemed to be glancing in Weiss's direction which startled her a little bit considering the fact that he was blind.

"Well, I hate to be the breaker of bad news girls, but we gotta ring you freshies in the hard way." Coco smirked. "By the time Team CFVY is done with you, you'll be a fully functional team!"

With that, Ozpin dismissed the two teams and Team CFVY Provided them with a slightly altered schedule for their off times. They'd still have time to get assignments done, but now a lot of their other off time was dedicated to hanging out with the members of Team CFVY.

Yang brushed this off like it was nothing and continued on as normal back to their dorm room wanting to get some rest. Weiss was understandably trying to figure out how the new Schedule could work with all the other tasks she had already planned for herself.

Ruby on the other hand was talking at about 100 miles per hour to Coco. "Oh my God you're so cool, your team is so cool, show me how to be a cool leader!" Ruby squeed as Coco just chuckled a little and ruffled the eager young huntress's hair. "Easy there. We gotta see how bad your situation is." Coco explained. "Which is why..."

"We're going to have a sparring match!" Coco smirked as she held her purse over her shoulder, the two teams facing off against one another in the amphitheater much to Yang's annoyance as she was just about to get some rest for later when she was pulled into this.

* * *

Ruby smirked as the match would begin. She would immediately fire off a few rounds at Coco, who in turn would dodge them and hit them with her purse. "Ya gotta try harder than that, Ruby." Coco chuckled as Ruby transformed her weapon into it's scythe form and swung at her, Coco backflipping away from it as she then hit Ruby with her purse.

"Ouch! W-What's in that thing, a ton of bricks?!" Ruby asked, rubbing her arm.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Coco chuckled as she looked to her other teammates.

Weiss was steadily holding her own against Fox, keeping the other at bay, but Fox kept breaking through her defense whenever she made an attempt to use one of her more advanced glyphs.

"C'mon Schnee, you really gotta know I'm not gonna stop to let you use your semblance!" Fox stated as he ducked under another glyph and hit Weiss in the gut, knocking her back several feet.

Blake was dodging and ducking around attacks from both Velvet and Yatsuhashi who seemed to be working almost perfectly in sync with one another. "Yang!" she called out as Yang fired off a shot before yawning. The shot completely missed Yatsuhashi and instead hit Blake, which angered her. "What are you doing?!" she spoke up for once which woke Yang up as Blake then took a kick to the gut from Velvet as Yatsuhashi finally turned his attention to the blonde.

"Are you awake enough now?" Yatsuhashi asked, clearly a bit of concern in his voice as Yang rubbed the sleep from her eyes and straightened herself out.

"Yeah. Readier than I'll ever be." Yang stated as she ran forward and threw a punch out at Yatsuhashi that was blocked with his sword.

Coco let out a sigh as it was clear these freshmen were going to need a lot of work. "Alright, Fox, on me!" Coco ordered as the two of them were now standing side by side against Ruby and Weiss who were very clearly not working well together, and almost against each other.

"Ruby I told you to watch my back!" Weiss yelled.

"Sorry, Ice Queen, I'm the team leader here and I'm telling you to watch my back!" Ruby stated in defiance, swinging her scythe and firing a shot through one of Weiss's Glyphs that in turn crystallized the shot that thankfully Fox and Coco were both able to dodge as it hit the wall and created a large shard of ice.

"You dolt, watch what you're doing!" Weiss glared before Coco ran at her, only for Ruby to again get in Weiss's way, swinging at Coco with her scythe only for Fox to knock it out of her hand. Weiss then attempted to lunge forward at Fox only for her to get disarmed as well by Coco who then smirked to Fox as he then in a single punch knocked both of the girls out of the arena. which made Weiss even angrier at Ruby, and Ruby just looked away.

The two turned towards Yang and Blake who were fighting Yatsuhashi and Velvet separately before running forward at the last two members of RWBY. Fox punched Yang in the gut which made her smirk as her hair started to glow now.

Blake left a clone of herself behind to take the hit from Coco who jumped in suddenly at her. She then transformed her weapon and threw it out at Yatsuhashi in an attempt to help Yang, Yatsuhashi however could hear it and ducked out of the way as Yang sprinted forward only to meet Blake's weapon that now wrapped around her wrist.

"What?!" Yang's eyes went wide as Blake had already motioned to try pulling back but now was flinging Yang around the arena in a circle on her ribbon. "W-WHOA!" Yang tried to slow herself down with shots but that only accelerated her as the members of Team CFVY ducked out of the way of this attack before Blake tripped over a bullet casing from Ruby's crescent Rose and now was being flung around with Yang right out of the arena and into a hard wall.

Ruby watched in awe at what just happened while the two girls groaned upon finally getting up. Yang was trying to free her arm of Gambol Shroud's ribbon, but Blake rushed over and helped her. "Yang, are you okay?" Blake asked.

"I think I'm gonna hurl..." Yang groaned, holding her stomach. "You faring any better?"

"Well, I've barely eaten all day." Blake stated with a slight chuckle as Team CFVY stepped out of the arena and over to them as well as the other two members of their team.

"That was crazy!" Ruby chuckled a little. "That was so cool! You gotta try that again!"

Coco shook her head. "That was probably the craziest thing I've seen a Freshman around here do. You guys are alright. On your own you seem to be capable fighters, but as a team." Coco shook her head.

"As a team you leave much to be desired." Yatsuhashi stated.

"You know you got a problem when the blind man can read your attacks." Fox chuckled.

"Not to mention you had a hard time fighting together." Velvet noted with Blake looking down.

"What were those cool moves you did when you were teaming up together?!" Ruby asked eagerly.

"Those were team attacks. Just some stuff that I coordinated with my teammates." Coco explained as Ruby looked to her teammates, her eyes lit up with ideas.

Coco merely adjusted her glasses slightly as Yang and Blake got up. "Yang, no more partying as long as you're under our tutelage." she stated.

Yang grumbled a bit in disappointment but nodded her head in agreement.

"Now that everything's cleared up. You'll be meeting with us tomorrow after sparring sessions in the library." Coco stated as she then lead her team out.

Team RWBY had to get ready for their last class of the day, and this was one of the more difficult ones to keep up with.

* * *

It was Dr. Oobleck's class and he talked at a speed that just about everyone had a hard time keeping up with. He served as the history professor, explaining events such as the great war and it's atrocities to his class so as that history wouldn't repeat itself. Today's class was on the topic of the Battle at Fort Castle during the faunus rights revolution.

"Now then class, what was the one error General Lagune made that caused his defeat in the Faunus rights revolution?" Doctor Oobleck asked as he took a sip from his expresso.

Cardin chuckled a little. "He didn't keep his animals on a leash?"

"Mr. Winchester your racist attitude isn't appreciated in this classroom, where all students have an equal opportunity to learn! Now then, would any student care to provide a real answer to my question?!"

Weiss raised her hand, thinking now. "Um perhaps it was that the faunus sabotaged his weaponry with their sneaky tactics?"

Dr. Oobleck merely shook his head. "Ms. Schnee I'm disappointed, you're usually brighter on these sorts of topics."

Weiss grunted and started flipping through her own notes before another hand shot up, albeit unintentionally. It was Jaune.

He was confused now. "Do you know what Mistake General Lagune made that cost him the Battle of Fort Castle?"

"Oh um..." Jaune looked around Pyrrha was pointing to her eyes and was trying to figure out what she was trying to say. "... He forgot..." Jaune was nervous now, Nora was now making a motion, pointing to the window where the sun was setting. "He forgot his binoculars?!"

The rest of his team face palmed while Cardin laughed. "Incorrect! Everyone who answered wrong now owes me an essay, but you Mr. Winchester..." Oobleck glared at him. "For your disrespectful attitude this class, you have to submit to me an extra 5 pages, explaining why Faunus rights are important." He took another sip of his expresso before turning to Pyrrha who raised her hand.

"Yes, Ms. Nikos."

"He attacked at Night and Faunus are known for having Night Vision." Pyrrha explained.

"Perhaps if he had paid attention in class..." Blake was glaring at Cardin now. "He would have known." Cardin rolled his eyes at Blake's remark, Jaune chuckling a little at Cardin's expense now before Dr. Oobleck added another 5 pages on Jaune's assignment as well.

With that class had ended and Jaune let out a sigh as Cardin shoved him down upon exiting class. Pyrrha immediately helped him off the ground and brushed him off. "You know, Nora and I WILL break his legs if you ask us to."

"N-No it's fine." Jaune let out a sigh as he turned away from them. "I should probably go see if he needs any help."

Pyrrha then finally grabbed his arm, pulling him aside. "Wait just a second. You're going to come with me."

"W-What for?!" he asked.

"Just follow me." she lead him to the roof of their dorm building, as it was now rather late.

"Pyrrha, I understand that I'm hopeless, but I don't think I'd jump. I could always take up another career like farming or something." Jaune sighed.

"Oh, N-No!" she pulled him away from the roof's edge. "I just... I see you're struggling and I want to help you." she admitted. "I can train you if you'd be-"

Jaune cut her off. "Pyrrha, with all due respect I want to be able to do this on my own." he stated.

"Oh? Is that why you're letting Cardin push you around then?" she crossed her arms.

"It's... more complicated than that Pyrrha." Jaune sat himself down at the edge of the roof.

"What is it then? What could he possibly have over you that would make you have to do his bidding?" Pyrrha crossed her arms.

"He knows how I got into Beacon." he began.

"What do you mean? You're just as qualified as everyone else is, aren't you?" Pyrrha sat down next to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

He moved her hand off his shoulder and stood back up. "I'm not though. I lied."

"I'm sorry, what?" Pyrrha looked up at him.

"I lied. I'm not a legitimate student at all. I faked my transcripts and got myself accepted here. Cardin found out about it and he's been using that as leverage over me. He'll have me expelled if I even try to do anything about it." his eyes darted downwards as he turned to walk back inside.

"Let me help you Jaune, surely there's something-" Pyrrha was cut off.

"Just stop it. I can't let you put your own career on the line for a wannabe like me." he walked towards the exit and opened the door, turning back to face Pyrrha before closing the door behind him.

"Jaune..." her scroll then lit up with a message. It was a message from Ren about pancakes. "Oh... I better get down there before Nora starts a fight again."

Jaune let out a sigh as he had received numerous texts and calls from Cardin. He finally called back. "Hello?"

"Finally you got back to me, Jaune! I was worried you'd jump off the roof or something." Cardin joked. "Anyways, I need you to get my assignment for Professor Oobleck done and also get me a box of Rapier wasps before our trip to Forever Fall next week. Remember, your secret's safe with me." he taunted as he then hung up and Jaune let out a sigh before sitting down right outside of his team's dorm.

"What a joke... I'm a failure..." he held his head low.

"Nope." came the voice of Ruby as she sat down right across from him in the hallway, only wearing her pajamas.

"What do you mean? I'm not a good fighter, my teammates carried that battle back during the initiation."

"Hmm..." Ruby paused for a moment." Nope." she poked his nose. "Jaune, you're an excellent strategist and still a far better leader than I am. Your team at least hasn't been fighting with each other constantly." Ruby chuckled. "I've also had my miss-steps as a leader recently." she admitted.

"But... We can't give up in trying." Ruby stated. "We have to be better because the others depend on us. Sometimes, you just have to put your team first." she looked back to the door to her team's room. "We both still have a long way to go in that sense I suppose. But, it's the burden we have to carry as leaders." Ruby stood back up and offered a hand to Jaune. "If you try your hardest, then I'll try my hardest too. How's that for a deal?"

"What's in it for me?" Jaune joked.

Ruby thought for a moment. "I'll help you upgrade your weapon." she offered.

"Alright, it's a deal. But, I will say, I don't really want anything extravagant, oh and you don't have to do it right away." he assured.

"That's fine, just lend it to me whenever you'd like and I'll see if I can work my magic!~" she made a motion with her hands like she was casting a spell. Jaune chuckled a little.

"T-Thanks for that Ruby." he looked to his team's dorm room.

"It's no problem." she smiled before opening the door to her team's room. "Good luck out there." she closed the door.

* * *

**Commentary**: With team CFVY's help here, Team RWBY's able to start ironing their own problems out. Although there is still going to be some underlining issues. We also get a hint at team attacks with those accidental moves. Also some more moments from Jaundice here.


	13. Chapter 9: Forever Fall

The task at hand was fairly simple, at least according to Professor Peach. Just gather sap, one full jar for each team member. However, she did warn that various hostile creatures were attracted to the sap, that it likely wasn't a good idea for any student to get sap on themselves less they want to become a target for such creatures.

Team RWBY was surprisingly having an easier time, Team CFVY had also decided to accompany them because really they just wanted a reason to be outside of class, and if it included helping Team RWBY out then it couldn't have been that bad of a choice.

The group upon getting off the airship and starting into the forest were halted by Glynda Goodwitch. "Students, remember you're her for tree sap. Not sightseeing. Once you've successfully gathered enough sap to fill your jars, you're to report back here so that I may log your jar for Professor Peach to know you've finished."

With that everyone broke off into the forest. There were plenty of trees to choose from, though they definitely had to make sure to pick the ones with enough sap as they weren't the first group to venture out today on this trip.

Ruby was having trouble trying to reach a hole in the tree where sap was starting to come out. "Need some help?" Coco asked, lowering her shades a little.

"Y-Yeah that'd be appreciated." Ruby smiled before Coco lifted her up by the waist slightly, letting her collect the sap for her jar, filling it up half way.

"You know, Ruby. As fun as it has been with you four, we're not gonna be around for you guys forever. I mean, it's been what? a week? You guys have been progressing very slowly." she shook her head.

"Y-Yeah well Yang and I get along fine." Ruby chuckled.

"True... But that's to be expected when you got a sibling on your team. Although the same isn't true for every sibling." Coco stated. "I would know, having two brothers... Heh... But Toma and Mate are just a couple of trouble makers." she then looked off towards Blake. "What about Blake?"

"What about her? She doesn't wanna talk. I can't make her talk unless she wants to." Ruby frowned. "I mean she's fine with me, but I feel like she thinks of me just as naive kid. I mean sure my dreams are pretty lofty, but I mean I don't think they're too far out there..." she then turned her attention to Weiss.

"Oh and I know the deal with you and Weiss." Coco stated.

"Y-Yeah..." Ruby looked down. "But, Weiss has agreed to at least let me take charge of certain tasks as leader for the time being. I think that trip to Ozpin's office really shook her and made her realize that maybe Professor Ozpin didn't make the wrong choice with me as the leader... Although I still feel don't feel too good on the whole... 'leadering' thing..." Ruby stated with air quotes before she spotted a lower source of sap.

"It takes time." Coco followed her.

* * *

Blake had just finished filling her jar when she spotted something... It was a rock in the distance. Something about it seemed familiar to her. She walked over to it and looked at it... Something was flashing through her head. Memories? This wasn't far from a cliff was it? she put a hand to the rock when suddenly a camera flash lit up behind her and she turned around only to see Velvet with a camera in hand, having taken a photo of her.

"Oh, right I should probably ask." Velvet looked down as Blake picked her jar back up and walked over.

"It's fine." she shook her head. "What's the picture for anyway?"

"It's something Coco doesn't really want me to share much about. It does have to do with my box though." she smiled and put her camera away.

Yang smirked and threw a punch out at one of the trees before her, the sap spilling out and right into her jar, filling it up right away.

"Such a brash way of doing things..." Yatsuhashi commented.

"Well, it got the job done, didn't it?" Yang smirked, closing the jar up as she then looked to Yatsuhashi shaking her fist off from the punch.

"Yes, but look at what you did to that poor tree." he remarked watching the sap continually ooze from the hole Yang had punched, like a dripping wound.

"It'll heal it up, won't it?" Yang asked.

"It might, in time. But at the same time, it may not recover." Yatsuhashi put his hand to the tree and closed his eyes.

Yang just seemed a little perplexed. "You do know that, even if it was in pain it can't really express it to us..."

"I... I know. But even then it is a living thing and therefore it is hurt."

Yang just rolled her eyes and walked over. "I'm sorry Mister tree." she pat it's side before walking off, picking her jar up off the ground. Yatsuhashi just shook his head before following after her.

Weiss with her rapier out paced around a tree till she saw the correct spot to strike and with a careful cut that almost seemed like an incision, removed the bark and then collected more sap. She would have to do this with a few more trees as Fox was merely just following behind her.

"You know, there's a much simpler way to do this." he chuckled.

"Oh? And what's the blind man going to tell me now?" Weiss asked, a hint of sassiness in her tone as it was clear she was starting to get used to her conversations with Fox by now.

"Well, this blind man was going to tell you that the trees with the bark that feels a lot looser like say..." he walked over and put his hand to a tree. "This one. Will give you a little more sap for what you're looking for. I thought as a Schnee you'd have the sense for this sort of thing."

"Well, I'm not really too invested on the business side of the family company." Weiss admitted as she would move to the tree Fox directed her to and make another incision.

* * *

Cardin leaned back on a tree stump as his other teammates were loitering around waiting. "What's taking him so long?" Russel asked in annoyance.

"Just give him a minute before I tell him to hurry it-" before Cardin could finish his sentence, Jaune had come forward with several jars of Tree sap in his hands almost spilling out if Dove hadn't moved to grab a couple to prevent him from dropping them.

"Attaboy Jaune." Cardin smiled as he took the jars for his team and then ordered them up.

"I think i'm allergic to this stuff..." Jaune groaned as he held his stomach before Cardin shoved 2 of the extra Jars he had gotten into Jaune's hands.

"Now you're probably wondering why I asked you to get those two extra jars..." Cardin began.

"Yes, that is one of the many questions I had today Cardin." Jaune responded with a hint of annoyance in his tone as Cardin then dragged him along.

"Well, if you'd look over there, you'd see it... Her..." Cardin grit his teeth in anger. "Pyrrha Nikos. 'The Invincible Girl' as people see her as. She's so full of herself. Thinking she can tell me off in class. Both her and that Blake girl. But now... We're gonna teach her a lesson." Cardin stated as he pulled Jaune to his feet again, picking a jar up and handing it to him.

"Now, I had you gather the two boxes of Rapier wasps for me for a reason. According to one of the papers I had you write for me they're apparently attracted to the sap from here So we coat Pyrrha and Blake in that and watch a fun show." he explained.

"And you're gonna start with Pyrrha." Cardin explained, with Jaune looking at the jar in his hand.

"..." he looked down at the jar in his hand and back to Pyrrha... The words from his conversation with Ruby the previous week ringing out in his head.

"What are you waiting for, Arc? I'll go to Goodwitch and have you expelled from Beacon if you don't do as I'm telling you right now!" he grabbed Jaune by the collar before letting go of him.

He bit his lip, dropping the jar to the ground. "No."

"What did you just say?" Cardin glared.

"I SAID NO!" Jaune kicked the Jar and hit managed to hit Cardin square in the chest, shattering it and covering his armor in the tree sap.

"Oh... Big mistake..." his eyes narrowed as Russel and Sky grabbed his arms and Cardin punched him in the gut with enough force to make him cough before pulling him further into the forest.

"Forging papers to get into Beacon... Not only will telling that information to Professor Goodwitch get you expelled. But it'll also land you in jail for fraud." he then opened a jar of the tree sap and poured it over Jaune's head.

"Oh, but before we tell Goodwitch... Let's see how you like those rapier wasps-"

Before he could open the box stomping was heard from the distance and having smelled the sap was a Badger Bear, it let out a mighty roar as Cardin turned to face it with his weapon in hand. However right as he was about to attack it, a shadow loomed over it and a set of glowing red eyes along with a strange pattern between them were the only part of this figure Cardin could make out before it knocked the Badger Bear aside, scaring it off into the forest as a fully matured Ursa Major stood before the five now.

Dove immediately fired off shots from his sword at it, the shots merely bouncing off it's armor harmlessly as it let out a roar that could be heard from quite a distance away.

* * *

"Jaune..." Pyrrha dropped her jar, just as Nora had finished drinking the sap from her jar yet again.

Cardin grit his teeth and swung his mace at the Ursa Major, activating it's explosive fire dust. However, this attack seemed to do no more than annoy it as it then swiped at Cardin, knocking the weapon out of his hand and send him flying back several feet as the rest of his teammates immediately Ran, Dove again firing off more useless shots at the beast.

"We'll get help!" Russel assured while Cardin looked to his teammates before then glancing over back at Jaune.

The Ursa major appeared to sniff the sap, which Jaune was covered in far more of, yet it was still moving for Cardin.

It made another swipe at Cardin as he was trying to stand himself up, hitting him and knocking him into a rock before continuing towards it's prey.

Cardin was barely able to come to his senses when it made it's next attack on him, only for that attack to be blocked.

Jaune had drawn out his weapon and was barely holding the beast back. "W-What're you sitting there for?!" Jaune glared at Cardin. "MOVE!"

Cardin without a word moved out of the way just as Jaune was knocked back several feet, the Ursa major roaring at him before turning it's attention back at Cardin who it still seemed more fixated on.

"URSA! URSA!" Russel called out while running, before running right into Yang who headbutted him and held him up by his collar.

"Where?" Yang asked.

"I-It's back that way!" Russel explained. "It's got Cardin! O-Oh and Jaune too!"

Yang dropped him as he continued to run back towards where Professor Goodwitch was. Blake, Yatsuhashi, Coco and Fox all looked at each other.

"Blake and I can go make sure they get Professor Goodwitch. You guys just go on ahead!" Coco directed as Blake nodded in agreement the two running off.

Cardin was scrambling to pick up his weapon after it had been knocked out of his hand again while Jaune shouted at the Ursa major, still being ignored till he threw a rock right at it's head, causing it to turn around and snarl.

"C'mon you big stupid bear! Attack me!" he threw yet another stone that harmlessly bounced off it's armor.

That was when a red blur came right into the scene and fired off a shot at the Ursa Major, the shot strong enough to make it stagger back, but unfortunately not strong enough to make a dent in it's armor. "You stay back from him!" Ruby yelled as she transformed her scythe, attempting to slash at the Ursa, only for her scythe to hit it's shoulder blade and it to look rather annoyed with her before standing up, it's height was enough to pick her up off the ground as well before it then lashed out with it's closest arm, sending her flying back several feet onto her back.

"Ruby!" Jaune called out as the Ursa Major now was focusing on her before Jaune grit his teeth and closed his eyes. "I'm always so damn useless..." he admitted. "I just want to be the damn hero for once, but I'm even a failure at it when I try!" tears were streaming down his face now as the Ursa suddenly turned it's attention towards him.

That was when it hit him... This Grimm wasn't attracted to the sap at all... Negativity. Professor Port's lecture in class.

Jaune then stood his ground as the Ursa Major ran towards him and raised a claw up, that was till Jaune slashed at it, cutting it right at the joint where it's arm connected to it's shoulder. The beast wailing out in pain now as it now was solely focused on Jaune who then, moving around it slashed at the back of it's leg, making it yell out in more pain before it spun around and hit him, knocking him several feet onto his back, but he stood right back up.

It was at this moment Pyrrha, Weiss, Fox and Yang came up to this scene, Yang helping Ruby up off the ground.

Weiss and Fox were just about ready to go, that was till Pyrrha halted them. "Wait."

Jaune cut at another joint along the Ursa's body, black mist gushing from the cut as the boy then checked his aura level upon being knocked back again. It was below 10% now, he had to end it with this next attack. He knew exactly where he needed to aim as he then ran at the Ursa major, swinging his sword towards it's neck, however he hadn't raised his shield to block.

Pyrrha smiled and raised her own hand up, Jaune's shield suddenly moving itself to block the Ursa Major's claw and with one swift movement his sword sliced through the Ursa major's neck, causing it to stumble before collapsing on it's side, fading away into mist as Jaune was catching his breath now, sheathing his sword.

"What just happened?" Ruby asked.

"I gave him a little help." Pyrrha stated.

"How?" Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"Weiss, you have your glyphs, Ruby has her speed... My semblance is polarity."

"Whoa... You can control poles..." Ruby remarked.

"No, you dunce, it means she can control magnetic metals!" Weiss corrected.

"Magnets are cool too..." Ruby noted as they watched this scene from a distance.

"Well we should tell him, shouldn't we?" Yang asked.

"Hmm... I don't think that'd be the best idea." Pyrrha remarked. "I don't really broadcast my semblance out for people to know, just so you know." she stated, everyone noting that. "Though my friends can know. But we'll keep this incident as a little secret between us, as I don't want to ruin this..."

Cardin peered out from behind the rock, seeing Jaune standing over a mist cloud as he then stumbled over, holding his side before falling over.

Jaune then offered a hand to Cardin, helping him stand up and pulling his arm over his shoulder. "Jaune, I... I had no idea-" Cardin was cut off.

"After today, I never want to speak to you or your team again, and don't even think about messing with my friends again either." he stated as Cardin looked down, in shame now just as Professor Goodwitch with the other students came over to the scene.

Cardin had notably confessed what he was trying to do and accepted the punishment him and his team would be given as a result of his actions, especially after they had put a lot of people in danger.

* * *

Later that Night, Jaune sent out a text message to Pyrrha, asking her to meet him on the roof.

She was surprised to see him in his combat attire, holding his sword and shield in hand. "Pyrrha, I'm sorry I-" she took hold of his sword hand.

"There's no need to apologize Jaune... I saw how Cardin had you wrapped under his thumb." she looked down.

"But, I'm done with him now." Jaune stated. "A-And I've been thinking about your offer. Would you, please train me?" he asked. "Please?"

Pyrrha let go of his hand and started to walk away with him looking down, thinking that she had rejected his offer when suddenly he was shoved over by Pyrrha.

"You need to hold a firmer stance with your legs spaced out a little more. Let me show you." she instructed as she then took his sword and shield from his hands and posed in a stance. "Try to do this."

Jaune just smiled as he got up, taking his sword and shield back and attempting to mimic her pose.

"No, further apart!" she called out, coaching him now.

This was going to be a long night... But, maybe this wouldn't be too bad, after all the neglect he had given his team over those past weeks with Cardin. He certainly had some making up to do with this, and his own skill as a fighter.

* * *

**Commentary:** Forever Fall time! Except here it isn't used exclusively to further Jaune's arc. Instead RWBY gets some more moments with CFVY. Which Jaune does still have his big moment here so rest easy with that i suppose. Also the Grimm here is again shown to not be a pushover. At least not the heavily armored ones as that Ursa knocked Ruby aside with ease and shrugged off Cardin's strongest attack. Now that Jaune's arc is done we can progress things a little more, so look forward to that! We are going to meet some new students as well...


	14. Chapter 10: New Arrivals

It had been roughly 2 months since the trip to Forever Fall and Team RWBY was starting to get along better after team CFVY put them through numerous tasks, ranging from training with each other's weapons, which went about as well as one would expect with Blake and Weiss barely being able to handle the recoil of their partners weapons, Yang hitting herself constantly with Gambol shroud and Ruby nearly breaking Myrtenaster with her rough handling of it, piggyback racing that Ruby totally cheated with by using her semblance and just plain sit down talks, that Weiss and Blake barely contributed to, but at least contributed a little to, still not delving much into their personal lives.

But today Glynda Goodwitch had called all of the students into the amphitheater for an important assembly.

"Now as I'm sure all of you are aware, the 40th Bi-annual Vytal Festival is coming to Beacon this year." Professor Goodwitch began. "The first wave of visiting students from Haven are to be arriving today, stay on your best behavior and remember students, you're representing all of Vale." with that Professor Goodwitch dismissed the assembly and all students exited the amphitheater. Ruby and Yang were notably giddy at the thought of the festival and participating in the tournament, Nora seemed more eager than ever and Jaune seemed eager to prove himself.

Weiss smiled, stopping in front of her teammates. "I've decided. We're going out into town today."

"Aww, really Weiss, what for?!" Ruby seemed excited.

"She probably wants to spot the competition for the tournament since they're coming in." Blake stated as she now had another book in hand already.

"Y-You can't prove that!" Weiss sweated nervously. "Look, the point is lunch is on me, so are you in?" she asked.

"YEAH!" Ruby beamed as she rushed ahead of everyone.

"Should we tell her the docks are the other way?" Weiss asked.

"Eh... Let her figure it out." Yang shrugged her shoulders.

It would be then that Alix would approach the group.

"Hey, you girls got room for one more?" he asked eagerly.

"Sorry Alix... This is a team thing only." Yang stated. "But you're welcome to go student spotting by the docks with us afterwards."

"Oh, actually that's kinda what I was hoping for." he admitted. "I wanna know who we might be dealing with during the tournament. I figure, it might be good to get a head start and all. Although, one member of my team is kinda flaky on the whole... Tournament thing, they kinda don't really care for that stuff. But Erika and I wanna give it a go so we're trying to convince them. Maybe if they meet some cool transfer students their opinions might change!"

"Right, well if you wanna meet with us, be sure to meet us by the docks after 2." Yang nodded before looking back to her team, Ruby finally realizing she went the wrong way.

"You guys... Could have... Told me..." the girl was regaining her breath.

"Oh and I know just the place we can go!" Yang smiled.

* * *

The four girls would soon arrive in Vale and Yang would lead the group towards the restaurant.

"Um Yang..." Weiss began. "This is a construction site."

"Yeah, I know, most of this area is closed off except for the pedestrian walkway. I figure we can cut through here to get to the restaurant a bit faster." she explained as the four continued through the construction site.

One of the crane workers was startled when an alarm went off signifying his lunch break, realizing it was his lunch break, he lowered the crane onto the roof, to finish this load while slowly unwrapping his sandwich, his mouth watered at the sight of it. "Finally..." he leaned back to take a bite. However, it was in leaning back he made himself too comfortable, accidentally kicking his feet up to rest and making his crane move, forcing him to drop the sandwich as he fumbled to try and get control of the crane back. For whatever reason it wouldn't stop moving and now knocked several girders off the roof and towards the walkway.

Team RWBY was just walking through when the crane had knocked the Girders down and now the girders were flying towards the girls.

Weiss instinctively made a glyph appear in front of them when suddenly several arrows came flying out towards the girders, upon impact the girders were blown up, much to Weiss's surprise as she lowered her glyph. However, the last girder finally tipped over the roof and was falling towards Ruby when suddenly a figure leaped up and with two swords in her hands cut clean through the girder twice, the girder crumbling into ashes as the new stranger landed right in front of the team.

She was wearing a Haven academy uniform, her hair was a raven colored and upon turning around her one visible eye appeared to be yellow.

"That sure was close." the girl stated in a slightly worried tone as she put her weapons away on her back.

"Whoa... That... WAS AWESOME!" Ruby cheered eagerly as the girl could only chuckle a little bit at Ruby's own eagerness, stopping only upon making eye contact with the girl.

"That uniform..." Blake noted. "You're from Haven?"

"Yes, I'm here with my team for the tournament." she explained. "My name's Cinder. Cinder Fall." she greeted with an outstretched hand and a welcoming smile.

* * *

Feeling grateful for her actions, Team RWBY saw it fit to reward Cinder for saving them by inviting her for lunch with them. Yang and Ruby ordering burgers, Weiss sticking with a salad, Blake having some fish and chips, and Cinder like Weiss having a salad.

"So..." Ruby began, trying to break the dead air. "What's it like at Haven?"

"Oh, Haven is simply beautiful, even more so during the Spring time." Cinder began. "They have beautiful gardens all around the campus that are tranquil and a great place for meditation and the cafeteria only offers the highest quality and healthiest of foods." she explained.

"Sounds nice." Yang remarked. "Well at Beacon we got pretty..." she paused for a moment, remembering the slop she had a few days ago. "Good food." she chuckled a little awkwardly.

"Their food leaves much to be desired, but they can at least accommodate people with more sophisticated tastes if need be." Weiss explained, observing how well mannered Cinder seemed to be at the table.

"So, where are the rest of your teammates?" Ruby asked curiously.

"Oh, they're getting our stuff off the boat right now. You know how complicated baggage checks are, especially when there are huntsmen involved and all. I went on ahead of them to go look around."

"I see... Might I ask you the name of your team?" Blake pondered.

"Certainly. We're team CMNE(Carmine). Led, by your's truly." she pat her chest with a smile before she continued eating her food. "Headmaster Lionheart was very eager for us to go."

* * *

After a couple of minutes of silence, the five had finished their meals and Weiss paid with her card as they exited the restaurant. "Well, it was pleasant to meet you, Cinder." Weiss stated.

"As was it to make your acquaintance, Ms. Schnee." Cinder bowed which just made Weiss blush a bit at how formal she was being.

"Please, there's no need for the formalities. I'm a student just like you are." Weiss shook her head.

"I apologize... I just didn't know how to greet someone of your... caliber..." she lingered on that last word for a moment before shifting tones again. "Anyways, it was pleasant to meet you four. I'm certain if Beacon has a team like you around, Team CMNE will certainly have tough competition in the tournament!" she chuckled a little bit.

"Oh, you better watch your back! Because we'll sweep the floor with all the competition!" Yang boasted. "And We'd be more than happy to go against you and your team!"

"We wouldn't have it any other way." Cinder put a hand on her hip before her scroll rang and she picked up. "Oh?! On it, I'll be right there!" she hung up. "It appears we have to part ways right now. My teammates are having a little... Trouble with their bags. See you around!" she ran off into the distance.

The four girls all very impressed with her.

"If Haven has students like her... It kind of makes me wish I went to Haven instead of Beacon." Weiss remarked as the team started to walk towards the docks.

"Oh come on, that's just one student. I doubt they're all gonna be like her!" Yang stated.

"So... Weiss, did you take notes on her abilities?" Blake asked. "After all, isn't that part of the whole purpose of this trip?"

"I-I... Didn't." Weiss hung her head.

"Well I mean she had a bow, explosive arrows... Oh and her bow could turn into those cool swords! I should have asked her to show me!-" the team was cut off when they came upon a crime scene. A dust shop had been robbed, it appeared to another one from the "From Dusk Till Dawn" chain of stores.

"Another robbery?" Ruby asked as she approached the two detectives.

"Yeah... No money was stolen, just dust." the bearded detective explained.

"It was probably... Those White Fang mooks." his clean shaven partner reasoned.

"Of course it's the White Fang." Weiss agreed. "I hope this store registered this incident with the Schnee Dust Company." she glared at the two detectives who sighed.

"We'll ask the store owner." they walked off.

"Of course it'd be those degenerates with the White Fang." Weiss scoffed.

"What's your problem with them?" Blake asked a hint of annoyance in her tone.

"What's my problem?! I don't deal with the criminally insane." she crossed her arms.

"They're not just psychopaths..." Blake argued. "They're just a group of misguided faunus who only want what's right for their people."

"If by right you mean, they want the extinction of the Human race." Weiss rolled her eyes.

"So then they're VERY misguided faunus! Either way, this wouldn't answer why they would steal all the dust from a shop in the middle of downtown Vale." Blake reasoned.

"She does have a point." Ruby added. "They never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a while back. It could be him again."

"That doesn't change the facts. All the faunus know how to do is just lie, cheat and steal." Weiss put a hand on her hip, glaring at Blake.

"That's not necessarily true, you know." Yang interjected.

"I-" before Weiss could argue more the sound of yelling came from the docks.

"Hey, Stop that filthy animal!" a man's voice called out as a blonde haired boy with a monkey tail Jumped out onto the edge of a docked boat, he wore a white shirt that was open enough to show his abs, and a pair of jeans and sneakers along with finger-less gloves that seemed to have a bit of armor plating on them, perhaps alluding to the fact that he might be a fighter.

"Thanks for the ride!" he laughed as he leaped off the ship and ran down the docks.

Team RWBY immediately ran over to see what the commotion was about.

"YOU NO GOOD STOWAWAY!" the boat's captain yelled at him.

"Hey, I'm a GREAT stowaway, a no-good stowaway would have been caught!" he laughed while eating a banana and throwing the peel onto the face of one of the sailors that attempted to approach him.

He laughed more before jumping off the lamp post he was hanging off of and running, jumping up a wall and onto the street level before continuing to run past Team RWBY... Where in a brief moment of eye contact he winked at a surprised Blake before continuing to run.

"Well Weiss, I'm willing to bet that was some of our competition for the tournament." Yang chuckled.

"Quickly, after him!" Weiss insisted as they ran in pursuit of the blonde haired faunus. Just as he leaped up a wall while turning a corner the entire team crashed right into an orange haired girl, slamming her into a trash can that rolled over with her inside of it.

Weiss shook her head. "Come on! We have to continue-"

"Uh, Weiss." Ruby pointed to the downed girl.

"Oh my gods!" Weiss immediately went with her team to help the girl out of the trash can.

"Salutations!" she greeted with a smile and a wave.

"My name is Penny, it's a Pleasure to meet you!"

"Uh, hi..." Ruby greeted. "I'm Ruby." she introduced herself.

"Weiss..." Weiss waved. "Are you alright?"

"Blake." Blake greeted flatly.

"Yang!" Yang waved as well albeit a bit awkwardly at the weird girl.

"I'm fine, thank you for asking. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"You already said that." Ruby stated.

"So I did." Penny nodded. "I'm here for the tournament!" she explained.

"You do? You hardly look like someone who's fit for combat." Weiss noted.

"Says the girl wearing the skirt." Blake scoffed.

"It's a combat skirt!" she huffed in defense.

"YEAH!" Ruby appeared beside her in a blur of rose petals for a pose and a quick hi five that Weiss quickly shook her hand of.

"I'm Combat Ready!" Penny assured as the four girls looked among each other.

"She's a lost cause." Yang rolled her eyes before noticing Team JNPR along with Alix in the distance.

"Hey guys!" she called out approaching them, the rest of her team slowly following in suit.

"Well, it was nice to meet you." Ruby smiled. "Take care friend." she waved as Penny's eyes suddenly lit up as Yang was already talking to the group, clearly pointing at Penny.

Right as Ruby turned around Penny appeared in front of her.

"Did you call me friend?!" she asked. "Am I really your friend?!" she seemed eager now.

"Um..." Ruby looked behind her to where literally everyone else from Beacon she was currently friends including her teammates with were waving their hands as if to tell her to refuse. "Sure!" Ruby smiled.

Everyone but Penny and Ruby simultaneously passed out on the floor.

Penny cheered eagerly. "Sen-sational!" she took Ruby's hand. "We could do all sorts of friend activities! Like paint our nails... Or maybe try on clothes! Or maybe um... Talk about boys?" she asked.

"Ugh..." Ruby grunted a little now. "Is this what it was like when you met me Weiss?"

"Hardly." Weiss scoffed. "She seems to have more of a grip on things than you did."

"Gee thanks..." Ruby deadpanned for a moment as Team JNPR greeted Penny.

"Hello!" Pyrrha smiled as Penny also waved.

"Salutations, Pyrrha Nikos!" she greeted.

"Oh you know of me?" Pyrrha asked.

"Of course! Atlas does love to keep track of up and coming huntsmen! Especially with someone with as much potential as yourself!" Penny smiled.

"Oh... Uh thanks." Pyrrha nodded.

"Wait a second, I thought it was just Haven students showing up today." Alix remarked.

"Oh, it is. But my father paid for me to come here early to observe the festival!" Penny explained. "He thinks I should get out more..." she looked down sadly for a moment.

"Ugh..." Weiss groaned and started off from the group again.

"Where are you going?" Blake asked.

"I'm going after that... Faunus rapscallion! That Faunus Riffraff... That Filthy stinking Animal!" Weiss explained.

"Can you not call him that?" Blake stood her ground.

"Oh, I'm sorry, would you like me to not call this trash can a trash can?" she pointed to the garbage they had knocked Penny into. "Or this lamp post a lamp post?!"

"Just STOP!" Blake yelled out angrily, which turned everyone's attention away from Penny and onto her.

"Stop what?! I'm being truthful! Just give him time and he'll join up with the rest of those terrorists in the White Fang." Weiss raised her arms up.

Blake grit her teeth, now visibly upset. "You... Racist... IGNORANT LITTLE BRAT!" she stormed off.

"How DARE you talk to me like that! WE'RE TEAMMATES!" Weiss stomped after her.

"You are a judgmental little girl who has no idea what she's talking about!" Blake argued.

"You guys might wanna go..." Yang looked back towards everyone who were all starting to back away from this. Everyone but Penny who leaned in.

"Can I help in any way?" she asked.

Ruby just let out a sigh and shook her head. Penny, getting the message backed off with the others.

"I can't believe you'd defend scum like him!"

"Stop calling him that! Calling him scum makes you just as much of a scoundrel as you believe him to be!"

"So you're willing to admit it then? That the White Fang are all just a bunch of psychopaths that want nothing more than to murder and steal!"

"You know, I didn't say that! You're just putting words in my mouth now!" Blake grit her teeth.

Ruby and Yang couldn't do much apart from watch them argue as they kept arguing into the late afternoon, Ruby looking to her scroll and pointing at the two of them, looking at Yang who took a deep breath.

"Just cut it out for a second you two!" Yang interjected, her eyes and hair flaring up in anger. "Look, arguing like this is going to get us nowhere! We're going to miss the last shuttle back to Beacon if you two don't cut it out right now!"

* * *

The two remained quiet during the entire trip back to Beacon, not a word shared as this shuttle back to Beacon was dead silent... The four teammates not making eye contact with one another. Ruby and Yang were scared any sudden action would start up the argument again and the dead air was held between the four till they got back to their dorm room, the door slamming shut behind them when Weiss spoke up again.

"I don't see how I'm wrong." she stated.

"That's exactly the problem!" Blake interjected.

"You're defending the White Fang! They're pure evil!"

"There's no such thing as pure evil!" Blake grit her teeth now. "It's because of people like Cardin, people like YOU that force them to act in such irrational ways! If you had the decency to treat them like people then-" she was cut off as Weiss interjected.

"Do you know why I hate the faunus?! They've been at war with my family for as long as I can remember. Actual war, as in real bloodshed. I've had a target on my back my whole life." she began. "For as long as I can remember my grandfather's company has been the target of The White Fang. I've seen videos and messages of board members and family friends kidnapped or executed. Transports of dust... Stolen."

Blake looked down when Weiss mentioned this.

"Every day... My father would come home furious and that would make for a very difficult childhood." she balled her hand up into a fist.

"Weiss..." Ruby wanted to speak up, putting a hand on her partner's shoulder but Weiss continued.

"NO!" Weiss stormed back over to Blake. "Do you want to know why I hate the White Fang?! Why I hate the faunus?! It's because they're all just a bunch of liars, thieves and MURDERERS!"

Blake was shaking now as her eyes narrowed at Weiss. "WELL, MAYBE WE WERE JUST TIRED OF BEING PUSHED AROUND!"

she stopped at that moment when her emotional shaking had caused her bow to slip off her head, revealing a set of cat ears.

Ruby, Weiss and Yang all stopped and stared. "I...I...!" Blake picked her bow back up and immediately sprinted out of the dorm room.

"Blake!" Ruby ran after her, using her semblance to try and tackle her, but only hitting a shadow clone as Blake ran off and down the hall.

Weiss's eyes were wide. "This whole time... Right in plain sight..."

* * *

Blake hid herself, sobbing by the air shuttle docks, covering her head as she couldn't focus enough to tie her bow before a voice spoke up. "I knew you'd look better without the bow." the familiar voice of the monkey faunus from earlier stated. "The name's Sun." he offered a hand to her.

* * *

**Commentary**: It is time to kick off the Final arc for Volume 1! And what a way to start it. Not only do we have Penny and Sun's introduction here and pretty much the events of "The Stray" from the original. But we also have another new introduction, Cinder Fall, the kind and charismatic student from Haven. This version of Cinder has more personality than her canon counterpart and can pull of the "Friendly face" act real good. She's not always evil sounding. Apart from that, most of the events played out the same with some obvious extra inclusions here and there. Next Chapter the search is on for Blake as she's gone missing.


	15. Chapter 11: The Stray

"Thank you for taking me here, Sun. And thanks for letting me stay over, Tukson." Blake stated as she sat on a patio with Sun and another man who seemed much older, he had black hair and hazel eyes and no visible faunus trait.

"It's the least I could do for Ghira's daughter." he smiled while pouring her a cup of tea.

"So..." Blake looked down at her tea and back to Sun whom was holding up his tea cup with his tail. "I guess the least I could do is just tell you about myself, since I don't have much to offer now..."

"My father is Ghira Belladonna... The original founder of the White Fang." she began.

"Wait, you mean he's the leader of those psychopaths?!" Sun asked, almost choking on his tea now.

"No..." Blake shook her head. "He founded the group to be a voice for our people. In the ashes of war, that was what the White Fang was meant to be. I was at the front of every rally."

"And he's a damn good man." Tukson nodded as he took a seat at the table.

"He founded the White Fang to peacefully lead our people towards equality with humanity and a better relationship all around for everyone." Blake explained.

"Well? What happened? Why'd they all turn psycho?" Sun asked.

Blake groaned yet again when Sun made that statement, but continued. "My father eventually stepped down as he was slowly losing support from his methods not having much success... Many people argued it had to do with how not all humans were reasonable and others would just attack us on sight during peaceful marches. That was when Sienna Khan stepped up to become the current high leader."

"Sienna's methods were more violent... Brutal, terroristic in nature. We would raid and burn stores that refused to serve us, fight back against the people who would attack us and lure Grimm to places where those who thrived off faunus labor lived. The worst part about this was, it was working. People were beginning to treat us as equals... But not out of respect... Out of fear."

Blake finished her tea as she then nodded to Tukson. "Thank you."

"Any time, Blake." Tukson nodded.

"I hope you don't mind me staying here for now." Blake looked down.

"It's alright with me. I hope you don't mind helping me run my shop though."

"Shop?" Sun asked.

"Tukson's Book trade! Home to every book under the sun!" he chuckled a little.

"You know that phrase isn't true." Blake rolled her eyes.

"Well it's just a catch phrase." Tukson argued as Blake poured herself another cup of tea.

* * *

After reporting the incident to the school, Professor Ozpin gave a time frame to Ruby, Weiss and Yang before he'd look into replacing Blake with another student if they didn't find her within the week. After 2 days of searching around on Beacon's campus, the three set off into Vale.

"Blake!" Ruby called out.

"Blake?!" Yang added while Weiss remained silent.

"Weiss, c'mon you agreed to come out with us, so help us!" Ruby glared at her partner.

"Do I really have to though? You heard her, didn't you? A terrorist... Right under our noses." Weiss scoffed.

"You can't be serious, Weiss." Yang glared.

"Hey, maybe this new teammate won't be a known criminal!" Weiss argued before Ruby, finally fed up with Weiss's attitude, spoke out in a louder tone

"Get over yourself, Weiss! We need to find her and hear her side of the story before passing judgement." Ruby argued.

"..." Weiss stood there in silence, looking down regretfully as she then followed behind the two right before Penny approached from around the corner.

"Hey Ruby!" Penny greeted her with a smile.

"Oh, hey Penny..." Ruby looked down.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"Oh well, Weiss, Yang and I are looking for Blak-" Ruby turned around and found Yang and Weiss to be missing, and groaned at the fact that they ditched her with Penny.

"Is this friend missing?" Penny asked Ruby with concern in her tone.

"You could say that." she sighed. "She got real mad at Weiss and then she ran off when she said something and revealed she was a faunus to us."

"Ah, yes the faunus girl." Penny noted.

"You sound certain of knowing that she's a faunus." Ruby stated.

"Well it was obvious with the cat ears being visible and all." Penny pointed to her bow.

"She was wearing that bow all the time... Even when she slept..." Ruby crossed her arms. "Come to think of it, she did like tuna a lot..."

The two kept walking down the street now.

* * *

Yang let out a sigh upon exiting another shop. "Still no sign of her."

Weiss on the other hand was observing the setting up for the festival on the street. "I certainly look forward to when the festival has started."

Yang walked over and saw a few welcoming banners being hung up. "All the planning and careful thought that goes into each of these events!" Weiss exclaimed.

"Ugh... You're so boring." Yang rolled her eyes. "And you're still not helping me find Blake!"

"Why do you care about her so much?" Weiss asked. "We could always ask the police you know."

"She's my partner... And I just... I don't want to believe she's a bad person. When i first talked to her, I just had this air about her... That she's a good hearted person."

"People can be deceitful all the time, Yang. Besides that, the innocent never run, Yang." Weiss shook her head. "Look, I'll up the search... I just... Need time to think of what I say to her. I need that time."

"Well you got all the time in Remnant. About a little under a week." Yang rolled her eyes as she walked into the next shop.

* * *

Back by the airship docks Team JNPR and Alix had just gotten off their shuttle and were walking into the city.

"Why are we out here again?" Nora asked with a hint of boredom in her tone.

"We're looking for Blake." Jaune affirmed. "After all, Ruby, Weiss and Yang can't cover all of Vale themselves. I figure since they're looking near where they went yesterday, we can look by the other areas of the city."

"Excellent plan Jaune." Pyrrha compliment.

"And I agreed to tag along because I figured you might need an extra hand in the case things get shady around here... Rumor has it, we might be dealing with the White Fang..." Alix explained.

"Well, all the more reason it's a good thing we brought our weapons with us." Ren nodded as they started down the street before a girl approached the group.

"Hey, excuse me." came the voice of Cinder Fall as the four members of Team JNPR and Alix all turned towards her. "You're from Beacon aren't you?" she asked.

"Yes, we are..." Jaune seemed a little defensive before Pyrrha put a hand on his shoulder.

"Oh, you're from Haven!" Pyrrha approached Cinder.

"Pyrrha Nikos! The Invincible girl herself! Who would have thought I'd run into you here!" Cinder bowed her head.

"No need to be so formal with me." Pyrrha assured.

"Oh, my apologies!" she straightened her posture a little bit. "It's surprising that a star athlete as bright as yourself didn't decide to go to Haven."

"Well, I wanted a little bit of foreign experience." Pyrrha admitted. "Besides that, I had less friends at Sanctum than I've made here already."

"Oh I bet. So what're you doing out here in Vale? Are you here to meet with anyone?" she asked almost completely disregarding everyone else here as it was clear she was more than enamored with Pyrrha.

"Oh no." she shook her head. "We're looking for someone." Pyrrha explained.

"Say no more." Cinder took her scroll out and started dialing for the authorities, but Pyrrha stopped her.

"No, this is something a little more personal. A member from one of our friends's teams has gone missing. We're looking for a black haired girl, with yellow eyes wearing a bow. Her name's Blake Belladonna."

"Blake?" Cinder asked. "I met her the other day along with the rest of her team. I can help you look." Cinder nodded.

"Are you sure you'll be of much help?" Alix asked. "You're not really from around here like most of us are."

"No..." Cinder shook her head. "But I figure if we spread out more we might have a better chance at finding her together."

"That... Might work." Ren noted, looking back towards Jaune.

"Well it couldn't hurt to try." Pyrrha affirmed.

"Alright then!" Jaune nodded as Cinder proceeded to trade contact information with everyone. "We'll split into groups of 2." Jaune looked to everyone who nodded in agreement.

"I'll go with Pyrrha." Cinder insisted, leading the star athlete out, with Pyrrha looking to Jaune a bit nervously.

"I'll handle Nora." Ren stated, knowing Nora would likely stop at every food stand along the way if he didn't come with her.

Jaune wanted to argue but saw it pointless. "C'mon Alix." he shrugged as the two blondes started down the street walking past a book store named 'Tukson's Book Trade.'

* * *

Inside the shop Blake, wearing a closed white Trenchcoat, and a hat over her head was stacking some books with the help of Sun who had just closed his shirt and wrapped his tail around his body in a not-so-subtle disguise.

"I wish I knew what to do..." Blake admitted.

"Well... I think you should go back to your friends and be honest." Sun suggested.

"How can I?! After what I did back there." she looked down. "I wouldn't be able to disprove Weiss's point-"

"That's it!" Sun snapped his fingers. "Why don't we go on a stake out?! I heard by the docks that there's supposed to be a huge shipment of dust that the SDC sent out in response to all the robberies as of late."

"And you think that the thief would go for a shipment that big, likely guarded by Atlesian robots?" Blake put the last book on the shelf in front of her.

"Well, do you got bright ideas?" Sun asked.

Blake let out a sigh. "I suppose I don't."

Tukson, having overheard this conversation decided to interject. "Blake, as you know... I help to run the underground railroad of White Fang deserters in Vale. I recently had a couple of runaways who told me they left after a recent meeting regarding an operation happening tonight."

"Tonight?" Blake asked, a hint of worry in her tone.

"Yes." Tukson led her and Sun to his back room where he started sifting through files, taking a paper out of a folder. "I keep accounts of why each member left because I intend to publish them in a book one day..." he explained. "Hopefully it'll make our people realize the error of Sienna's leadership, I've already got about 200 or so pages of-" he looked to the paper realizing he had to get back on topic. "The operation seemed to detail a large scale theft of dust." he handed the paper to Blake which she read over and stood up.

"Sun, we're going to the docks." she ordered. "We're staking them out because I refuse to believe this is true." she started towards the door.

"Blake. Listen, I know it sounds hard to believe-" Tukson tried to reason as Blake took the trenchcoat off, revealing her normal outfit and threw her hat onto the ground, putting her bow back on.

"No! There's no way that report could be true. I'm going to prove it. To myself that it isn't." She started out the door with Sun shrugging his shoulders as Tukson couldn't get another word in.

"Be safe..." he looked down sadly.

* * *

That night Blake and Sun were waiting on a nearby roof, overlooking the docks as the Schnee Dust cargo ship arrived. "There it is..." Sun pointed to it as he then knelt down next to Blake. "Snack?" he offered her an apple.

"Do you always steal without second thought?" Blake asked him.

"Weren't you in a cult or something?" Sun retorted, only getting a very grumpy stare back from Blake who then turned her attention to the docks.

Atlesian robots were guarding the shipments of the dust.

"Well there's no way the White Fang would make such an open move on such a heavily guarded ship-" before Sun could even respond the two robots went down in sparks as a sharp object stabbed through the both of them. As it would turn out a White Fang member completely camouflaged in black had taken out the two Atlesian Knights guarding the first crate before the sounds of commotion and metal breaking was heard on the freighter as Blake now sat up, upon the arrival of a bullhead. "I... didn't want to believe it'd be them but..."

Two faunus wearing robes stepped out of the bullhead. One with a set of fox ears and another with a fox tail. "It's true..." she looked down.

"Who are those two weirdos?" Sun asked noticing several members stepping off of the freighter to meet by the bullhead.

"Corsec and Fennec... They're influential members from the Menagerie chapter of the White Fang. I have no idea what they're doing here-" Blake stopped herself when two more figures emerged from the Bullhead. It appeared to be Roman Torchwick and Neo.

She stood up. "This isn't right. The White Fang wouldn't work with a human. Especially not one like that." she jumped off the roof.

"Wait, where are you going?!" Sun asked.

"I'm going to confront them." Blake stated, taking out her scroll as she ran to confront the White Fang.

"Well come on now you animals! Get a move on!" Roman grunted in annoyance with Neo almost mimicking this emotion mockingly, but arguably more threateningly while she stood behind him.

"Why did we agree to this, brother?" Fennec asked.

"Because, High Leader Khan would have our heads if we didn't keep tabs on our Vale commander's actions, especially not in such a... Crucial time... Not to mention, when humans are involved like this..." his eyes narrowed in Roman's direction.

Roman met his glare with the same amount of animosity.

"Is this the rope you need?" asked the cloaked faunus girl before her skin turned to it's natural tan, handing Roman the rope.

"No you animal, this isn't a leash!" Roman grunted before suddenly a blade was pressed to his neck and he dropped the rope. "Oh for- What is it now?!"

Blake had approached and put her blade to his neck before taking her bow off. "Brother's of the White Fang! Why are you aiding this lowly human?!" she asked.

"Sister Blake?!" Fennec and Corsec surprised to see her.

"Blake..." the girl's skin turned red as she glared at her from behind the mask she wore. "You abandoned us!" she pointed her weapon at Blake followed by everyone else around them as Blake kept her hold on Roman with Neo glaring in Blake's direction as well.

"Tell me?! Why are you working with a human?!" she again asked.

"Sister Blake, this operation is crucial for the White Fang's success in Vale as seen by our Vale commander." Corsec explained.

"The White Fang and I have decided to work on a joint business venture together." Roman explained.

"Tell me what it is, or I'm going to put an end to this operation of yours." Blake threatened.

"Oh I wouldn't exactly call this a 'little operation'" Roman smirked as several more bullheads arrived, each with White Fang soldiers. All of them started to leap out, wielding swords and guns. A large man with a chainsaw jumped out of the airship and put the chainsaw over his shoulder.

"Come back with us sister Blake. Adam will still forgive you." he insisted as Blake felt herself falter for a moment, loosening her hold on Roman.

Roman smirked at this chance, with his cane still behind his back, he shoved forward, escaping Blake's grasp and fired a shot at her feet, the shot exploding upon impact and launching Blake into the air.

* * *

**Commentary**: Things are only just kicking off here. So this is very different from the original events of "The Stray" what with the White Fang members being present being ones from a few volumes ahead. Which apparently Corsec and Fennec were to appear in Volume 1 originally. Here their appearance is more of a cameo than anything, along with that mysterious camouflaged girl that totally isn't anyone that'll be important later during Volumes 4/5. We also have the Lieutenant here because of course he'd be there for such a big heist. Backpedaling a little bit we do have our search parties formed as well. With Ruby and Penny, Weiss and Yang, Ren and Nora, Jaune and Alix, then of course Pyrrha and Cinder. This finale's going to be bigger scale than what we got in the original so look forward to that!


	16. Chapter 12: Black and White

Blake was peering down an alleyway as Sun went another direction to the docks to scout ahead of her.

Weiss had just entered a shop down the street when Blake peered out only to get shoved to a wall by an aggressive Yang.

"Yang?!" Blake was concerned now.

"Found you!" Yang was about to call for Weiss when Blake put a hand over her mouth.

"Yang... Look I just..."

Yang moved Blake's hand, loosening her grip on the faunus. "I know... Weiss clearly stepped out of line back there." she looked to Weiss who seemed to annoyed with how long the people at the shop were taking to get to her.

"We've been looking for you for these past couple of days Blake. If we don't take you back to Beacon then you're gonna be replaced on the team." she explained.

"I can't go back yet. Not till... Not till I prove to Weiss that the White Fang isn't the gang of thugs she thinks it is." Blake looked away.

"Then let me help you. Let your friends help you." Yang insisted.

"I... I can't I'm sorry... The White Fang has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember and I just... I need to answer this for myself." she took Yang's hand off her now and turned back towards the alley.

"If you have to do this on your own Blake. Then please... Call me if anything goes wrong." Yang insisted.

Blake looked down sadly for a moment but then responded with a nod. "I will, I Promise."

She then ran down the alleyway as Weiss had just exited the store.

"Yang? Any luck around here?" she asked.

Yang just took a deep breath. "No..." she started walking ahead of Weiss again hoping that she made the right choice.

* * *

Jaune let out an exasperated sigh as he exited another shop, meeting Alix who was calmly waiting outside of the shop. "This is hopeless... She's no where to be found."

Alix frowned a bit but put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, it's only been an hour and we haven't even gotten more than halfway down the first street we've started on."

He was peering into some alleyways that they were walking by now.

"I hate that you're right." Jaune took his scroll out and decided to call his teammates to check up on them.

"Ren how're things with you and Nora?" Jaune asked.

"Well.." Ren let out an exhausted sigh as Nora laid on a bench right next to him. "Nora's eaten her fill for now... Though she's not gonna budge for a while."

Nora burped loudly as she dropped her finished cotton candy cone onto the ground.

"There better be some there later!" Jaune whined as Ren just sighed.

"Pyrrha how are things going with you and Cinder?" he asked.

"Well we have heard some rumors about a girl with a bow running around here nearby... But we're not certain if it's Blake." Pyrrha explained.

Cinder peered into a shop's window, looking for any sort of lead only to find nothing.

"Well, let us know if you have anything more solid." Jaune stated.

"Will do." Pyrrha hung up the call as Cinder opened the door to a shop that sells ribbons, she followed her in.

"Have you seen a girl, long black hair wearing a black bow like this?" Cinder asked.

"No... But I'll definitely see one if you buy it." the shopkeeper joked.

Cinder chuckled a little before holding out a small stack of lien. "How about now?" she asked.

"Come to think of it I might have seen a girl like that out by Tukson's this morning."

"Tukson's?" Pyrrha asked.

"It's a book store run by some animal lover." the man scoffed. "The damn fool has strays going into his shop all day."

"Thanks for the info." Cinder gave him the money before the two left. "So... Tukson's?"

Pyrrha entered the name into her scroll. "Says it's just a few blocks east of here." she stated.

"Well then, let's go." Cinder walked ahead of Pyrrha.

"Cinder..." Pyrrha paused for a moment. "Why did you wanna go with me?"

"Well I mean who wouldn't? You're the invincible girl and all." Cinder reasoned.

"But I mean... Most people are usually too intimidated to even talk to me."

"i see." Cinder looked away. "I can give off that impression at times too."

"Really? I guess we're kind of kindred spirits in a way." Pyrrha laughed a little bit.

"I guess so." Cinder smiled.

The two would eventually reach Tukson's Book Trade.

Upon entering the shop Tukson immediately recognized Pyrrha. "Pyrrha Nikos! The invincible girl! Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade! Home to every book under the sun!"

"H-Hey... We're uh looking for someone." Pyrrha began.

Cinder stepped forward. "Have you seen or met a girl recently with long black hair wearing a bow?"

"Long black hair and a bow..." Tukson paused, he definitely knew exactly who they were talking about. "Why? Is this someone important to you?" he asked.

"She's a classmate of mine who ran off." Pyrrha stated. "We're worried about her."

"I see." Tukson crossed his arms. "I'm sorry to say, but you just missed her. She left a while ago."

"So you've seen Blake?!" Pyrrha leaned forward.

"Yes." he nodded.

"Where'd she go?" Cinder asked.

Tukson looked from side to side. "The docks. The White Fang is apparently planning some big heist there. Blake's determined to prove it's not them. But between you and me, I'm worried for her safety as well... Please, if you could go there to make sure she makes it out of there alright, I'd appreciate it."

"Of course." Pyrrha nodded and turned to Cinder. "You heard him."

"She's likely going to be staking out this 'planned heist'. We'll step in then." Cinder reasoned.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Pyrrha nodded before the two left the shop, Pyrrha sending a text to the rest of her teammates.

* * *

_Later into __the day..._

"So... Blake's your friend, right Ruby?" Penny asked her.

"Yes Penny." Ruby rolled her eyes.

"But she hid something from you."

"Yep..." Ruby nodded along.

"You know, if I had some big secret that might be important to my friends... I'd wanna tell them about it." she suddenly hiccuped.

"You okay, Penny?" Ruby asked as the girl laughed awkwardly before suddenly the sound of an explosion was heard in the distance and smoke rose up from by the docks.

"Oh no..." Ruby remarked as she ran ahead, Penny following behind her.

* * *

Blake grunted as she picked herself up off of the ground only to have to dodge another shot fired from Roman Torchwick's cane. She dodged that one, backflipped from the next one and left a shadow clone behind to take the hit for the next one as she turned a corner.

"Find her." Roman ordered as a few of the grunts would run after her along with Corsec and Fennec, who walked at a slower pace. "Neo, stay by the ship!"

Neo simply rolled her eyes and sat herself down where she was on the bullhead.

"Here kitty kitty kitty..." Roman snickered before a banana peel landed right onto his hat followed by Sun Wukong who had jumped down off of a crate.

Roman groaned while picking himself up, brushing his coat off as several soldiers surrounded him now, including the now camouflaged in black one.

"Not the brightest banana in the bunch, are ya kid?!" he taunted.

Sun then dodged the swipe of a sword, punching a White Fang grunt in the face, and spun kick another one before they could follow up from the previous attack and he then took his cane out and smashed it into the head of another one, and another solider that came at his flank. Slamming the blunt end of it into the face of another and then slamming his cane into the ground creating a shockwave that knocked everyone back.

The camouflaged White Fang member took their weapon out which unfolded into a rapier that she swung out at him with, revealing it to be a Whip as well that Sun barely dodged out of the way of.

Blake on the other hand was keeping her head down as she hid behind a crate. "Sister Blake, we know you're here." Corsec spoke out.

"If you come out peacefully we promise you won't be harmed." Fennec stated in an almost calming tone. No, she wouldn't be tempted back. Not after all that the White Fang had done.

Blake stepped out from her hiding spot with Gambol Shroud drawn out in it's gun form.

Before she could fire her first shot however, an arrow flew out and hit the ground near the Albain twins and the other White Fang members, exploding shortly after impact.

Blake turned around, surprised to see Cinder, Alix and Team JNPR entering the scene.

"You guys?!" Blake was surprised.

"A friend of yours was worried about you." Pyrrha stated.

"Good thing we showed up when we did." Alix nodded, holding his daggers in front of him.

Corsec and Fennec glared and ordered their men forward before falling back to regroup with more reinforcements.

"Blake, go on ahead. We'll handle this." Cinder insisted with a smirk on her face as she took apart her weapon's bow form into it's twin swords form and blocked the sword from a White Fang grunt, kicking them in the stomach.

Nora was having the time of her life, she slammed her hammer into one of the White Fang soldiers, slamming them into a crate, leaving a pretty hefty dent.

Jaune was starting to get ganged up on by a few White Fang soldiers, taking hit after hit when Ren jumped in, firing shots from his Stormflower at them, knocking a couple on their back as he delivered a kick to the chin of another and slashed at the last one on Jaune's left flank with his weapon's blades, dusting himself off. Jaune, seeing another soldier attempt to attack Ren from behind with a gun, jumped in front of him and blocked a bullet with his shield, the bullet ricocheting off the shield and into the faunus's shoulder. Pyrrha then knocked him out by throwing her shield at him, smiling to Jaune before turning her attention to the other soldiers that were rushing at her.

Alix ducked and weaved slash after slash, before rolling away and activating the wind dust in his daggers, creating a vortex that blew all the White Fang soldiers into a crate, a few of them however got back up and kept rushing at the group.

Sun ducked and backflipped from the Camouflaged White Fang member's whip, jumping onto the back of a downed soldier and flinging him towards Roman who ducked the attack and fired off a shot in Sun's direction that he deflected by spinning his staff around.

"He's mine!" Blake rushed in and swung her sword at Roman, who raised his cane up to block it. She then followed up, separating her weapon from it's bladed sheath, now dual wielding and attacking Roman with a flurry of blows, each of which he deflected with ease till he found an opening on her in the middle of another attack, hitting her with the handle part of his cane, then quickly spinning it around and hitting her on the head with the blunt part and then knocking her back with a blow to her chin from the bottom when Sun suddenly interjected.

Sun separated his staff into a pair of nun-chucks that also doubled as sawed-off shotguns, firing shot after shot at Roman that he was having an increasingly hard time keeping up with, yet he still managed to parry and block each one before Blake, seeing a chance, struck Roman in the gut with her katana, knocking the thief onto his back.

He grunted in annoyance just as Nora had sent a White Fang goon flying into a crate that was hanging from a crane. Roman smirked with an idea now and fired off a shot at the crate, Blake and Sun barely able to dodge it as Sun landed right at the Camouflaged White Fang soldier's feet, now pointing her weapon's rapier form at him.

"HEY!" Ruby yelled out as she stepped into the scene now with Penny standing right behind her.

"Oh, if it isn't little red! Out past your bed time?!" Roman taunted.

"Ruby, is this person your friend?" Penny asked curiously.

"Penny, stand back, I'll handle this." Ruby saw a shot from Roman's cane flying at her and fired a shot into the ground to dodge it and landed right in the ship yard as a few White Fang soldiers including the large one wielding a chainsaw surrounded her.

Just outside this scene Yang and Weiss were running over before seeing a flare shot blur by them and explode upon hitting a building. "Ruby." she looked to Weiss who nodded, calling her rocket propelled locker over that arrived after a couple of seconds, opening with her weapon that she took.

"You know, I never get tired of that." Yang chuckled.

"Me neither." Weiss admitted coyly before nodding to Yang, jumping up onto a glyph to get a better vantage point on what was going on by the docks.

Yang continued ahead, running through a ripped open crate only to come face to face with Neo who simply smirked at her.

"I don't have time for you." Yang insisted as she walked ahead only for Neo to appear in front of her and hit her cheek with her umbrella.

"You wanna fight?!" Yang glared as Neo smiled, shattering into glass as Yang punched her. "W-What?!" she was caught off guard as Neo was now behind her. Yang grit her teeth and fired a shot off from her weapon at Neo, again shattering. "You're getting on my nerves!" Yang groaned as she was now surrounded by copies of this girl.

The camouflaged White Fang member was about to attack Sun when suddenly a glyph appeared over her hand and pulled her back much to Sun's surprise as Weiss had arrived on the scene.

"Weiss?!" Blake was surprised to see her.

"We'll talk later..." Weiss stated. "It looks like Ruby could use your help."

Ruby was keeping good crowd control with the regular soldiers, however the chainsaw wielding soldier wasn't giving her any easy time at all as each shot from her sniper didn't seem to phase him much. Each attack he did was giving Ruby a tough time as both of their weapons required heavy swings, yet his swings were still faster than her's.

"Right." Blake nodded and ran to Ruby's side. "Ruby!" Blake called out.

"Blake!" Ruby then fired a shot off behind her, propelling her forward, Blake pushed herself forward with one of her shadow clones, the two slashing at the White Fang Lieutenant in succession before, their final joint attack had them both diving forward at the Lieutenant who was launched backwards and into the back of one of the bullheads.

"Good one, Blake." Ruby smiled to her teammate. "We have GOT to name that one!" she insisted before a flare shot hit her, sending her flying back, knocking Crescent Rose out of her hand.

Roman laughed as he had gotten a successful shot off on little Red, looking back towards the airship where Neo suddenly reappeared with a smirk on her face. "Playing with the kids now?" She simply rolled her eyes as Yang now rushed onto the scene, her little diversion only really wasting the blonde's time.

"Ruby!" Yang and Blake called out to her in a panic as Penny jumped down and rushed to her friend's side.

"Are you okay, Ruby?" Penny asked.

"I-I'm fine." Ruby sat herself up, holding her side as Yang's eyes turned red and Penny turned around in Roman's direction, glaring at him now.

"Penny wait!" Ruby panicked.

"It's okay Ruby." Penny assured. "I'm Combat ready!" Suddenly six swords protruded from her backpack as she then ran forward.

The Camouflaged White Fang member grit her teeth in anger as she lashed out her whip at Weiss who dodged and parried each attack. "Schnee!" she yelled as Corsec and Fennec, having stuck to the shadows for most of this battle leaped out at Weiss with daggers in their hands, only to be stopped by Sun getting in their way and blocking their attacks with his weapon's staff form.

It was here when JNPR, Alix and Cinder all rushed onto the scene to provide backup to Weiss and Sun, the three White Fang operatives were now surrounded.

Thinking fast the Camouflaged soldier, used her whip to smash the controls of a crane, causing it to spin out of control, accidentally slamming into a bullhead, but providing a distraction for her, Corsec and Fennec to escape from the group. TThe crane, spinning around eventually came down where they were just standing a second ago.

Penny effortlessly cut down enemy soldiers with her swords that spun around her almost like a shield except for when she sent them forward with basic movements. A White Fang soldier in one of the bullheads wielding a minigun opened fire onto her. Her swords quickly spun in front of her to protect her as two more came out from her backpack and pulled her back to a warehouse where she then held her hands out. Penny's swords started circling around her hands and focusing into an orb of energy that then shot forward and cut through 3 of the bullheads.

Roman immediately turned tail and ran as the other students started to approach, Cinder firing a set of 3 arrows at the bullhead, only one of them impacting and causing it to shake as it took off.

"These damn kids just keep getting weirder!" Roman remarked.

Corsec, Fennec, the Lieutenant and the Camouflaged soldier all flew off in another bullhead as Penny hooked onto an adjacent bullhead that was attempting to make off with a crate of dust with her swords. She immediately pulled it down and it exploded while all the others got away even with Cinder, Nora and Yang attempting to stop them with their explosive firepower.

"Dammit... They got away." Yang grunted in annoyance as Ruby leaned on her scythe to stand up, smiling to everyone as they all gathered together.

* * *

Cop cars showed up shortly after and everyone's statements were being taken, with Nora clearly exaggerating on some parts, much to Ren's slight annoyance.

Weiss finally returned to her teammates whom had all gathered by their own little corner and Blake immediately spoke up.

"Weiss, I just wanted to say that I'm no longer associated with the-" Blake was cut off when Weiss raised a hand up to shush her.

"I don't care." Weiss stated.

"You... Don't care?!" Blake was surprised.

"Yes, you said you don't work with them anymore, right?"

"Yes, I haven't worked with them since I was-"

"Ah-bah-bah-bah! I don't want to hear it." Weiss stated. "All I want to know if something this big comes up again. You'll come to us, your teammates first and not..." she looked in Sun's direction, him smiling cheekily. "Someone else."

Blake wiped a tear from her eye as she smiled to her teammates. "Of course." She was pulled into a group hug with her teammates.

"Woo! Yeah! Team RWBY is back together!" Ruby cheered.

Weiss then shot another Glare at Sun. "I still don't know how to feel about you..."

"Eheh... No hard feelings?" he asked.

"Well you did save me." Weiss nodded. "I suppose I'll thank you for that act."

Sun just rolled his eyes and looked to Blake. "This one's really an Ice Queen, isn't she?"

Everyone but Weiss laughed at that joke. "Oh that won't catch on." Weiss scoffed.

"Sure it won't. Ice Queen." Ruby snickered.

Team JNPR, Cinder and Alix had finished giving their statements when they approached the group.

"Say, where's Penny?" Ruby asked looking for her among the group.

Penny looked down sadly as she sat in the back of a black car.

"You should know better than to run around getting into fights, Penny." the voice of a mysterious man stated.

"I know, Sir..." she frowned.

"Your time will come, Penny." the voice assured her.

Back at Beacon, in his office Ozpin took a sip of cocoa from his mug, watching the live feed by the docks when a message came onto his scroll. It was from a Qrow Branwen and simply read: THE QUEEN HAS PAWNS

"Hmm.." Ozpin sat down.

* * *

Roman groaned as he entered a dimly lit warehouse, carrying a single case full of dust, dropping it onto a table as he leans on it. Neo frowned a little before slinking back into the darkness of the warehouse, clearly not wanting to bother Roman in this state. "Dammit..." he groaned. "Half of those damn animals left!" he threw his cane to the ground in annoyance. "Ran back to their dirty zoo of an island!"

"How disappointing, Roman." a slightly deeper yet familiar female voice called out to him as he stood up and grit his teeth.

"Whoa! I wasn't expecting you this soon!" Roman straightened his posture a bit.

Cinder Fall stepped out of the shadows wearing a different outfit, it looked to be a very ornate outfit of red, gold and black with a long coat tail.

"It was your dumb idea to work with those stupid mutts from the White Fang! And you certainly didn't make my trip back here any easier!"

"I had to keep my cover..." she explained. "Needless to say, we still were expecting better from you." Cinder shook her head. "And you **will** continue working with the White Fang."

She held her hand out and a flame formed in it. "We have big plans for you, Roman." she stepped forward, her eyes now glowing a sinister golden as two more individuals stood behind her. One of which a young pale man with Silver hair and an outfit of silvers, blacks and grays and the other a young dark skinned woman with mint green hair, wearing a short white and green top and white pants. The two of them looked rather amused to see Roman looking this threatened.

"All we ask of you is... A little cooperation." Cinder smiled sinisterly.

* * *

**Commentary**: With this, Volume 1 has wrapped up! Much larger scale finale than the original, eh? Yang and Blake having a scene before the docks as a slight flash back just felt a little right to me especially if we wanna establish them a bit earlier on as being good with each other. Then the dock fight... I'd be lying if I said I didn't have fun writing this one out. Obviously some things from the original Black and White stayed, but much more was added in that wasn't in the original. Certain rivalries are somewhat teased here, oh and another team attack does end up happening here as well. I'm just happy with how this finale turned out when I originally wrote it a couple of months ago. I didn't have to do too much editing here either, so that's a plus. Anyways, Volume 1 is done, next is Volume 2!


End file.
